Arkansas volleyball ranked No. 19 in preseason poll

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FAYETTEVILLE — The Arkansas volleyball team was ranked No. 8 in the SEC preseason coaches’ poll earlier, but the American Volleyball Coaches Association has the Razorbacks rated 19th nationally in the poll released Monday.

Arkansas is one of six SEC teams ranked in the AVCA poll. That includes Texas (No. 1), Kentucky (No. 9), Florida (No. 11), Tennessee (No. 15), and Georgia (No. 25) along with Arkansas. By comparison, Texas is No. 1 in the SEC coaches poll, followed by Kentucky at No. 2, Georgia fourth, Tennessee fifth,and Arkansas eighth.

The Razorbacks advanced to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament last season and finished a program-best No. 8 in the country in the final AVCA poll. But the Razorbacks lost All-American outside hitters Taylor Head and Jillian Gill and right-side hitter Maggie Cartwright to graduation.

Senior setter Hannah Hogue returns as an AVCA All-America honorable mention selection. The Fort Smith native posted 1,413 assists, which were the second-most by any Division I setter, the seventh-most in a single season at Arkansas, and the most by any Razorback setter since 2003. Her career assist count is currently 2,047, eighth-best in the program record book.

Arkansas Coach Jason Watson said the ranking says the season isn’t far away and creates a little excitement, but it’s not something they think about for long.

“Like so many teams, we are a work in progress,” Watson said. “Confident we’ll be a better team in a month than we are today. So the the AVCA poll serves as as a reminder that the season will soon be upon us. It heightens the urgency in our preparation. Outside of that, it’s fun for a minute and then we get back to work.”

Watson said he liked the progress his young players made in the spring. The roster includes five seniors along with five redshirt freshmen and two true freshmen. Watson said true freshman outside hitter Lauryn Lambert will redshirt because of an injury.

“We were spoiled perhaps last year for the experience that those kids had,” Watson said. “(The freshmen) will get there. … They are probably in as good a place as we’ve been with freshmen. They’ve just got to experience some things that they haven’t yet experienced. It wasn’t like ‘Oh, boy. What’s this going to look like? We’ve just got to get better.”

Watson said he wasn’t sure where he would vote his team in the league, considering their losses.

“Some people have reached out about that,” Watson said. “It’s funny when you’re at the top of the preseason list everybody says, ‘Well, those preseason lists don’t mean anything.’ When you’re eighth that’s when you want to talk about it. Either they mean something or they don’t.

“I had a couple freshmen say ‘Well, they’re disrespecting us because they picked us eighth.’ Well, where should they have picked us? You haven’t done anything. They conference is deep enough we may get eight teams in. I don’t know. It depends on what happens. We’ll see.”

Arkansas opens the season Thursday at 6 p.m Central with an exhibition match against Missouri State in Springfield, Mo. The Razorbacks start the regular season at the Mustang Invitational in San Luis Obispo, Calif., on August 30-31.

Arkansas hosts the Wooo Pig Invitational against Rutgers, Wichita State, Louisiana Tech and Arkansas-Little Rock on Sept. 5-8.

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