Gazette-Times


WALNUT CREEK, Calif. — Defending champion Stanford was picked to win the Pacific-10 Conference voleyball championship for the third year in a row in the coaches poll.

The Cardinal, who return three All-Americans and Pac-10/AVCA National Player of the Year Foluke Akineadewo from a team that placed second at the NCAA tournament, received nine of a possible 10 first-place votes and 90 total points.

UCLA earned the other first-place vote and was ranked second. USC and California, which joined Stanford at the Final Four, were ranked third and fourth. It was the third time in the past four seasons that the Pac-10 made up three-fourths of the Final Four field.

Oregon State was picked ninth, ahead of Washington State. The Beavers open the season at 6 p.m. Aug. 29 against Wyoming at the four-team Corvallis Invitational at Gill Coliseum.

The event also includes the College of Charleston and Portland State.

The other nine teams will also open their seasons on Aug. 29, also at tournaments. Stanford travels to Nebraska; UCLA faces Ohio in the Hawaiian Airlines Wahine Volleyball Classic in Honolulu and USC plays Texas in the Runza/AVCA College Showcase in Omaha, Neb.

The coaches have correctly picked the Pac-10 champion in 12 of the previous 19 polls. Coaches were not allowed to vote for their own teams.

coaches poll

Here is the Pac-10 coaches preseason volleyball poll, with first-place votes in parenthesis and total points at right:

1. Stanford (9) 90

2. UCLA (1) 75

3. USC 68

4. California 62

5. Washington 59

6. Oregon 51

7. Arizona 39

8. Arizona State 32

9. Oregon State 31

10. Washington State 18