The Lewis-Clark State College women’s volleyball team has been picked as the favorite to win the Frontier Conference title by the league’s coaches according to a preseason poll released on Monday.
The Warriors, who have won five consecutive regular season conference titles, drew six of the eight first-place votes to finish with 62 points. Last year’s conference tournament champion Rocky Mountain College garnered one first-place vote and was ranked second with 54 points. Carroll College claimed the final first-place vote to finish in third with 53 points. The complete results are listed below.
Coaches were not allowed to vote for their own team A first-place vote was worth eight points, a second-place vote was seven points, and so on down the line.
LCSC worked its way to an overall record of 23-6 last season, including a 13-1 mark in conference play. Head coach LaToya Harris, now in her second season with the program, garnered the Frontier's Coach of the Year Award, five of her players earned all-conference honors, and seven earned all-conference academic honors.
The team also made its fifth consecutive appearance at the national tournament where it went 2-1 to advance past pool play before falling in five sets to No. 6 Azusa Pacific in the first round of bracket play. The team received a ranking of No. 10 in the NAIA postseason poll.
With 10 players returning from last year’s squad, the Warriors will kick-off their season on the road at a tournament in Caldwell, Idaho, on Aug. 17-18. They will then travel to La Mirada, Calif., to participate in the highly competitive Biola Holiday Inn Summer Slam on Aug. 23-24.
LCSC’s first home contest will be a scrimmage on Sept. 1, and this will be followed by the official home-opener against league foe Great Falls on Sept. 7.
2012 FC Coaches’ Poll
Lewis-Clark State (6) 62 pts
Rocky Mountain (1) 54 pts
Carroll College (1) 53 pts
Westminster College 40 pts
University of Great Falls 40 pts
Montana State-Northern 29 pts
Montana Western 18 pts
Montana Tech 15 pts
Dickinson State 13 pts
