Volleyball ranked fifth in preseason poll
August 23, 2019
The Alaska Nanooks volleyball team was picked to finish fifth in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference’s Volleyball Coaches Poll, which was released by the conference Thursday morning.
The fifth-place ranking is the highest preseason finish ever for the Alaska volleyball team since the GNAC implemented the poll prior to the 2015 season.
The Nanooks, who are coming off a historic 2018 season with a 14-13 overall record, garnered 75 points in this year’s poll and place two spots higher than the 2018 preseason poll. Votes are awarded on an 11-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 scale and voted on by all 11 GNAC volleyball head coaches.
“We are excited to get the season started and pick up where we left off last year,” head coach Brian Scott said on Thursday. “We made large strides in our development and maybe that is reflected in our preseason ranking. We are not content to finish there and we have every intention of putting forth whatever effort it takes to finish as one of the best teams in the GNAC this season.”
Scott enters his fifth season as bench boss for the Nooks, while new assistant coach Meagan Olsen enters her first season in the position. Olsen, a Nanook from 2012-2016, served as the team’s volunteer assistant coach for the 2017 season and replaces Robbie Berrett as the full-time assistant for 2019.
Last season, Alaska’s 14 overall wins marked the most overall wins and the program’s first winning season since the 2008 campaign, where the Nooks went 15-10 overall. Additionally, Alaska’s 12 conference wins is the most for the Nanooks in the GNAC since the 2003 season (13-5).
The Nooks return 10 players from last season, including all starters, and welcome four newcomers.
Western Washington University and Central Washington University both received 114 points to tie for the first place favorite in the preseason poll. Western Washington received seven of 11 first-place votes, while Central Washington took the remaining four.
Alaska Anchorage ranked third with 93 points, followed by Simon Fraser (90 points) and Alaska (75 points) to round out fourth and fifth place, respectively. Following the Nooks was Seattle Pacific (63 points), Northwest Nazarene (53 points), Concordia (50 points), Montana State Billings (36 points), Western Oregon (26 points) and Saint Martin’s (12 points) closed out the remainder of the poll.
The Alaska Nanooks will hold their annual Blue vs. Gold game Friday, Aug. 23, at 7 p.m. at the Alaska Airlines Court at the Patty Center. The scrimmage is free and open to the public.
The Nooks officially kick off the 2019 season Friday, Sept. 6, against the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs at 9 a.m. Alaska time in the Oredigger Classic in Golden, Colorado.
For more information on the Alaska Nanooks volleyball team, follow @NanooksVB on Twitter or like the Alaska Nanooks Volleyball team page on Facebook.