Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
RICHARDSON, Texas — Angelo State is anticipated to repeat as the Lone Star Conference’s volleyball champion, according to a poll of conference coaches, sports information directors and media representatives.
After not playing the abbreviated spring season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Eastern New Mexico University isn’t anticipated to do much. The Greyhounds were chosen last out of 18 teams in the poll released Monday by the conference office.
The Rams garnered 771 points and 31 of the 44 first-place votes in the poll an are looking to three-peat as LSC champs. They went 16-2 overall with a 10-2 mark in the spring.
Texas-Tyler was second in the poll with 732 points and seven first-place votes. The other first-place votes went to third-place Texas A&M-Kingsville (three, 686 poll points), 10th-place Texas-Permian Basin (two, 409 poll points) and Dallas Baptist (one, 277 poll points).
The Greyhounds had 117 poll points, behind Cameron (121) and Western New Mexico (134).
The top five were rounded out by West Texas A&M and Arkansas-Fort Smith.
The reigning players of the year, all returning, earned preseason player of the year nods in their respective categories. Angelo State’s Kailyn Gilbreath was preseason offensive player of the year after taking player of the year honors last season, while Texas A&M-Kingsville had the defensive player of the year in Ayanna Jackson and setter of the year in Emily Witt.
The LSC begins its season next month, with each team playing a single game against the other 17 schools. The top 12 regular season teams will qualify for the LSC tournament. The lower eight seeds will begin the first round Nov. 16 at member schools, with the top four seeds receiving a bye to the quarterfinals. The final three rounds, set for Nov. 18-20, will be hosted by the top seed.
