BATON ROUGE — The LSU volleyball team was picked to finish third in the Southeastern Conference Western Division in a preseason poll by the league’s coaches, it was announced by the conference office on Thursday.
The Tigers received 40 points from the panel made up of the 11 SEC coaches. Arkansas, the defending Western Division champion, edged out Alabama with 56 points and eight first place votes to get the nod as the preseason favorite in the West. The Crimson Tide came in second with 52 votes and three first place votes. After LSU in third, Ole Miss, Mississippi State and Auburn round out the Western Division selections.
In the East, Florida, the 12-time defending SEC champion, was the clear favorite once again with 50 points and 10 first place votes. Georgia picked up the other first place vote along with 36 points, edging out South Carolina in third with 33 points. Tennessee and Kentucky completed the field in the East.
The Gators, who enter the season ranked No. 3 in the USA Today/AVCA Coaches Poll and advanced to the NCAA Final Four last season, were also selected as the overall league champion, picking up 10 first place votes. Alabama received the one other vote.
Voting in the West was done on a 6-5-4-3-2-1 basis while the East was calculated 5-4-3-2-1. No coach is allowed to vote for his/her own team and each coach also voted for one team as the overall conference champion. The East has only five teams as Vanderbilt does not have a squad.
LSU opens the 2003 season with the two-day Tiger Classic in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center beginning on August 29. The Tigers begin play on Friday at 12:30 p.m. against Centenary before taking on Virginia at 7 p.m. The tournament concludes with LSU facing UAB on Saturday at 1 p.m.