Men’s Volleyball: UCI picked fourth in preseason coaches poll

The UC Irvine men’s volleyball team is picked to finish fifth in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation preseason coaches poll announced Thursday.

Coach David Kniffin’s Anteaters have also been ranked No. 8 in American Volleyball Coaches Assn preseason poll.

UCI collected 83 points in the MPSF poll, finishing behind Pepperdine (121), UC Santa Barbara (98), USC (92) and UCLA (86).

Pepperdine received 11 of the 12 first-place votes, the other going to UCLA, guided by former UCI head man John Speraw.

Picked below UCI were, in order, BYU (77), Hawaii (63), Cal State Northridge (50), Stanford (46), Long Beach State (44), Cal Baptist (19) and UC San Diego (12).

UCI, coming off an 18-11 season in which it went 15-9 in conference play, opens its season Jan. 5 at home against Lewis.

— From staff reports