Sooners Get Nod in Opening Poll

Aug. 19, 2008

NORMAN, Okla. - The University of Oklahoma volleyball team begins the 2008 season receiving votes in the CBS College Sports Network/AVCA Division I Coaches Top 25 poll. The Sooners earned 15 points in the poll. OU opens the season next weekend, hosting the Sooner Legends Nike Invitational, Aug. 29-30.

In that opening tournament, every participant is either ranked - #10 Cal Poly - or receiving votes - OU, Michigan State and Wichita State. The following weekend, the Sooners trek to Los Angeles to face fourth-ranked Southern California in the Trojan Invitational. Of all the teams on OU's schedule, seven are ranked in the preseason top 25 and four are receiving votes.

With two starters returning from a year ago, the 2008 OU team features one senior, three juniors, five sophomores and seven freshmen. In all, the Sooners' roster has seven newcomers - five true freshmen and two transfers.

"It is always tough going into a season with the unknown," head coach Santiago Restrepo said. "That is how we are approaching this year. We have some very good players coming in, but we have returners who are very good and experienced. We only have one senior, but if we mesh right away, we will not miss a beat. All of the returners have worked extremely hard over the summer break. We know what some of them are capable of doing on the court. We had some of them play during the spring, and they did a good job."

Penn State received 59 of 60 first-place votes to begin the year as the nation's top team. Stanford, Texas, Southern California and California rounded out the top five. UCLA, Nebraska, Florida, Washington and Cal Poly were all ranked in the top 10.

CBS College Sports Network/AVCA Division I Coaches Top 25 Poll: August 19, 2008

Rank School (First-Place Votes)
1 Penn State (59)
2 Stanford
3 Texas
4 Southern California
5 California
6 UCLA
7 Nebraska (1)
8 Florida
9 Washington
10 Cal Poly
11 Oregon
12 Hawai'i
13 Wisconsin
14 Kansas State
15 Middle Tennessee
16 Minnesota
17 Colorado State
18 Iowa State
19 Clemson
20 BYU
21 LSU
22 San Diego
23 New Mexico State
24 Long Beach State
25 Purdue

Others Receiving Votes and appearing on two or more ballots: St. John's 180; Michigan 177; Pepperdine 113; Dayton 98; Michigan State 80; Louisville 66; Santa Clara 65; Ohio 62; Texas A&M 55; Utah 45; Illinois 44; Missouri 42; Tulane 38; Arizona 31; Duke 18; Kentucky 16; OKLAHOMA 15; Wichita State 14; Georgia Tech 8; Western Kentucky

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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