ASC Preseason Poll

The ASC once again leads all West Region Conferences by announcing their preseason poll first. You can find their poll here.

The ASC coaches and SIDs vote in this pool and with 11 eligible teams that means 2 times 11 is 23!?!? I’m not sure who gets that 23rd vote, but I’ll assume until corrected that it’s the Russians. It’s a good thing UT-Tyler is no longer eligible (with their move to DII) because the Patriots surely would have taken it on the chin from this anonymous Russian voter.

The East Division rankings were:

ASC Volleyball Preseason PollEast Division

Rank	Team (1st)	Pts.	2017 Record (ASC)
1.	UT-Dallas (23)	115	24-11 (13-3)
2.	East Texas Baptist	91	13-9 (8-8)
3.	LeTourneau	61	10-22 (4-12)
4.	Belhaven#	53	13-17 (7-9)
5.	Louisiana College	25	2-23 (0-16)
	UT-Tyler	N/A	22-8 (12-4)

# Eligible for ASC regular-season title, ineligible for ASC Championship/NCAA Division III Championship Tournaments (NCAA Div. III Provisional)

In my predictions, I had Belhaven and LeTourneau switched but since they are not eligible for the tournament, the qualifying teams will be the same. I’m not sure the logic of having LeTourneau ahead of Belhaven so I’ll just assume they know something I don’t.

The West Division rankings were:

West Division

Rank	Team (1st)	Pts.	2016 Record (ASC)
1.	Mary Hardin-Baylor (19)	133	28-5 (15-1)
2.	Concordia Texas	92	19-14 (10-6)
3.	McMurry (3)	90	24-10 (11-5)
4.	Hardin-Simmons (1)	76	15-17 (9-7)
5.	Howard Payne	51	9-20 (6-10)
6.	Sul Ross State	24	3-24 (1-15)

My predictions have McMurry and Concordia switched but I do believe the 2nd through 4th teams will battle it out all year for the remaining 2 ASC Tournament spots. Interesting that McMurry got 3 first place votes. They are my dark horse in this conference to win a division. HSU claimed the remaining first place vote.

The linked article from above also names a bunch of players from the conference on their “Watch List” so I recommend using the link. It doesn’t mention who nominates the “Watch List” players but there are two for each school so I’m going to assume it comes from the team’s coach. With that said, LeTourneau names two freshmen and Louisiana College names one freshman. Oh, and UMHB doesn’t have a representative…so I’m assuming Coach Frost is taking a knee here (or had one heck of a vacation).