IRVING, Texas – For the fourth year in a row, four-time defending champion WKU was selected as the 2018 Conference USA Volleyball preseason favorite, per vote of the league’s 13 head coaches. Senior Lady Topper Rachel Anderson was overwhelmingly nominated as Preseason Player of the Year.

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Head coach Travis Hudson and company polished off their fourth-straight 30-victory season in 2017, going 31-4 with the nation’s most sweeps (23). After claiming a share of the regular-season crown with North Texas, the Lady Toppers went on to secure their fourth C-USA Championship in a row. The squad’s senior class, highlighted by 2017 C-USA Player of the Year Alyssa Cavanaugh and Setter of the Year Jessica Lucas, became the first group in program history to appear in the NCAA Tournament every season during its tenure. WKU earned five first-place votes in the poll, now donning a nationally-recognized freshman class.
 
Anderson will lead the Lady Topper charge coming off back-to-back C-USA Tournament MVP titles. Her .413 hitting percentage marked the eighth-highest in NCAA Division I, adding 420 kills and 130 blocks on the year. The performance earned her an AVCA All-American nod.
 
Rice received a pair of first-place nods in the runner-up spot. The Owls competed in their first postseason tournament since 2009 when they appeared in the 2017 National Invitational Volleyball Championship. The program earned the No. 3 seed in last season’s conference tournament with an 11-3 league mark and 21-9 overall record. Grace Morgan and Nicole Lennon both represent the Owls on the preseason squad. Morgan was a 2017 First-Team All-C-USA pick and Lennon was named Co-Freshman of the Year.
 
Ivone Martinez, Sigourney Kame and Abbi Reid, preseason selections and 2017 all-conference nods, power a Florida Atlantic team predicted to finish third in the league with two first-place votes. The trio bolstered a unit that led the conference in assists and kills, while compiling the second-best mark in digs. Martinez also led the nation in assists and owned a team-high nine double-doubles.
 
Regular Season Co-Champion North Texas, slated to earn fourth this year with one first-place vote, drew up a record-setting campaign and closed the books in its second-ever postseason appearance in the NIVC. The Mean Green finished 29-4, a 16-win improvement from 2016, with the help of its best hitting clip in history. The program posted its third-most blocks, four-most assists and fifth-highest kill total. Co-Freshman of the Year Barbara Teakell and top setter Karley York appear on the preseason team.
 
Southern Miss rounds out the top-five in the preseason poll as the Golden Eagles garnered a pair of first-place votes. Senior all-conference member Kylie Grandy and AVCA Honorable Mention Sarah Bell are listed on the preseason squad, and look to steer their team to its fourth-consecutive 20-win season. Southern Miss muscled C-USA’s top-five numbers in kills, assists and hitting percentage last season and looks to continue that same energy with new head coach Stephanie Radecki at the helm this year.

2018 C-USA Volleyball Preseason Team
Yumi Garcia, Charlotte
Ivone Martinez, Florida Atlantic
Sigourney Kame, Florida Atlantic
Abbi Reid, Florida Atlantic
Karley York, North Texas
Barbara Teakell, North Texas
Grace Morgan, Rice
Nicole Lennon, Rice
Sarah Bell, Southern Miss
Kylie Grandy, Southern Miss
Macey Austin, UTEP
*Rachel Anderson, WKU
 
*Preseason Player of the Year
 
2018 C-USA Volleyball Preseason Poll
(first-place votes)
1. WKU (5)
2. Rice (2)
3. Florida Atlantic (2)
4. North Texas (1)
5. Southern Miss (2)
6. UTSA
7. Charlotte
8. Marshall
9. FIU (1)
10. UTEP
11. UAB
12. Middle Tennessee
13. Louisiana Tech