Angelo State is the narrow favorite to capture the Lone Star Conference title, according to the 2016 LSC volleyball preseason poll announced Monday.
The league's preseason polls reflect the opinions of LSC head coaches and sports information directors, plus various media representatives from throughout the region.
ASU, the defending tournament champions, were the South Central Region runner-ups with a 33-6 overall and 14-2 LSC record last season.
The Rambelles earned first-place votes on 13 of the 29 ballots for a total of 301 points. Tarleton State, the reigning champions, ranked second with 12 top votes to finish with 291 points, followed by Texas Woman's in third with 239 points.
West Texas A&M ranked fourth with the four remaining first place nods and 206 points, while Texas A&M- Kingsville was fifth (184), and Western New Mexico sixth (176). Cameron (158), Texas A&M-Commerce (154), Eastern New Mexico (99), Midwestern State (61) and UT Permian Basin (45) rounded out the poll.
The 2016 volleyball season begins in early September, with 11 teams set to compete. LSC teams will use a one-conference double round-robin scheduling model, in which each team plays a home and away match against each of the other teams.
The LSC champion will be the regular season winner determined by league matches, while the postseason tournament winner is designated as LSC Tournament Champion and earns the conference’s automatic qualification. The top eight teams in the final conference standings qualify for the postseason tournament set for Thursday, Friday and Saturday, November 17-18-19, at the No. 1 seed.
2016 LSC Volleyball Preseason Poll
| Rank |
Team |
1st |
TOTAL |
| 1 |
Angelo State |
13 |
301 |
| 2 |
Tarleton State |
12 |
291 |
| 3 |
Texas Woman's |
|
239 |
| 4 |
West Texas A&M |
4 |
206 |
| 5 |
Texas A&M-Kingsville |
|
184 |
| 6 |
Western New Mexico |
|
176 |
| 7 |
Cameron |
|
158 |
| 8 |
Texas A&M-Commerce |
|
154 |
| 9 |
Eastern New Mexico |
|
99 |
| 10 |
Midwestern State |
|
61 |
| 11 |
UT Permian Basin |
|
45 |