Aug. 26, 2010

NAPERVILLE, Ill. -

The Great West Conference volleyball coaches have selected North Dakota to repeat as conference champion in their annual preseason poll announced Thursday by the league office.

North Dakota, on the heels of its GWC regular season and tournament titles, received five first-place votes for a total of 47 points. 2009 GWC runner-up Utah Valley came in second in the voting with 44 points and recorded two first-place votes.

South Dakota finished third in the coaches' poll with 33 points. NJIT and Houston Baptist were separated by only one point in the balloting with the Highlanders ranked at No. 4 with 23 points while the Huskies finished with 22 points at No. 5. Texas-Pan American followed closely in sixth place with 20 points and Chicago State rounded out the poll with seven points.

The teams will begin the 2010 season on Friday. Chicago State and South Dakota are both playing at the Northern Illinois Invitational, Houston Baptist is traveling to Florida Gulf Coast to participate in the Homewood Suites Volleyball Classic, NJIT is at St. Francis (NY) for the Terrier Invitational, Utah Valley is playing at the Missouri Tiger Invitational and North Dakota and Texas-Pan American are hosting invitational tournaments.

The race for the GWC title will begin on September 16, when NJIT travels to Utah Valley. The regular season title will be decided by a double-round robin and a postseason tournament champion will be crowned at Chicago State on November 19-21. All seven teams will compete in the conference tournament with the regular season champion receiving a first-round bye.

GWC 2010 Preseason Volleyball Poll

1. North Dakota (5) 47 pts.

2. Utah Valley (2) 44 pts.

3. South Dakota 33 pts.

4. NJIT 23 pts.

5. Houston Baptist 22 pts.

6. Texas-Pan American 20 pts.

7. Chicago State 7 pts.