Alabama Volleyball Voted Second in Preseason SEC Poll
8/13/2015 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - The Southeastern Conference announced its preseason volleyball poll on Thursday and Alabama has been picked to finish second in a vote of the league's head coaches. Additionally, redshirt junior Krystal Rivers was picked as one of nine athletes on the Preseason All-SEC team.
The Crimson Tide earned 127 points, including one first place vote, to earn its spot at No. 2. Defending SEC champion Florida earned the remaining 12 first place votes, totaling 144 points as the preseason favorite. Kentucky, who is ranked No. 14 in the preseason AVCA poll, placed third in the SEC voting with 120 points while Texas A&M was fourth with 113 points.
Redshirt junior Krystal Rivers was also selected as one of nine SEC players to the Preseason All-SEC team, marking her second consecutive appearance on the list. Last season she led the team and ranked second in the SEC in both kills (557, 4.19/set) and aces (48, 0.36/set), earning All-SEC and AVCA Third Team All-American honors.
Alabama returns every starter from last season's team that set a new school record with 26 wins, including a five set win in the first round of the NCAA Tournament against Samford, the first tournament win in program history. The Tide's five set victory over Texas A&M on Oct. 31 last season marked the program's first victory against a ranked opponent, which came a month after the Tide made its first ever appearance in the top 25 poll. Alabama set new records for fan attendance as well last season, with a Foster Auditorium record crowd of 1,749 on hand for a thrilling win over LSU on Sept. 28 before an even larger record crowd of 2,169 watched Alabama defeat Auburn in four sets on Nov. 21.
Alabama opens its 2015 season on Friday, Aug. 28 against Long Beach State at the LBSU/CSUF Baden Invitational in Long Beach, Calif. On Saturday the Tide will play Cal State Fullerton before making a short trip to Malibu to face Pepperdine later that night at the Pepperdine Asics Classic.
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