(08-24-2021 04:49 PM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  

(08-24-2021 04:09 PM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  No surprise, we're unanimous pick to win the West, with Nicole selected as preseason POY. Carly and Anota join Nicole on the all-conference team .Surprised WKU received only 5 of the 7 votes to repeat in the East...
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https://riceowls.com/news/2021/8/24/wome...hamps.aspx

Western Kentucky just split 4 games with #3 Kentucky (last year's champs) in an exhibition.

FIU was picked 1st by someone? They were 3-10 last year. Weird.

WKU is #16 and deservedly so. They bring back everyone as do we. I know Kentucky is preseason #3, but I just don't get how given they lost last season's national player of the year in their setter (a key factor in any offense's efficiency), as well as their all-american outside hitter, the elder Skinner sister, who transferred to Baylor. I'm sure they'll still be very, very good, but #3 seems only a bit less absurd than their ranking Stanford in the preseason Top 15 last year after losing four first-team all-americans, including 3-time national POY, and another third-teamer. Note-- Stanford ranked preseason #21 this year, ahead of us, is equally absurd, given how bad they were last year, and they lost their best player on last year's squad. I know they have back-to-back Top 5 recruiting classes, but they bring back very little proven, experienced talent at the D1 level.