The University of Louisville volleyball team has been picked to win the Big East Conference championship in its first season as a member.

The Cardinals got 12 first-place votes in balloting by league coaches. Notre Dame, which got three first-place votes, was picked to finish second, followed by Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and Marquette. The latter two, like U of L, South Florida and DePaul, are competing in the Big East for the first time.

The Cardinals return five starters, including a league-high three members of the All-Big East preseason team, from a team that finished 30-3 overall and 13-0 in Conference USA. Last season, U of L was ranked No. 16 in the final USA Today/CSTV and AVCA coaches' polls and won the C-USA regular-season and tournament titles.

All three Cards honored -- senior middle blocker Jennifer Hoffman, senior outside hitter Lena Ustymenko and junior outside hitter Anastasia Yartseva -- were unanimous selections.

Senior middle blocker Lauren Brewster of defending champion Notre Dame was selected as the preseason Player of the Year.

Is there any other competitive teams in the Big East? I don't know how the voting went, but I could imagine Cincinnati and South Florida being picked at least in the top 5 as well.

Notre Dame is supposed to be pretty good. We beat them in the NCAA's last year, didn't we?

ND was picked second and one of their players was picked pre-season player of the year.