BURNSVILLE, Minn. - For the 14th consecutive season, league coaches have placed Concordia-St. Paul at the top of the NSIC Preseason Poll.
The program captured its eight NCAA Division II Championship in 2016, winning the NSIC regular season and tournament title prior to capturing its 10th regional championship since 2003.
Concordia secured 10 of the 15 possible first place votes and 218 points in the poll. Southwest Minnesota State, regular season co-champions with CSP last year, secured three first place votes and came in second in the poll with 202 points, edging out Minnesota Duluth with 201 points and two first place votes. Augustana secured the final first place vote in the poll and is fourth with 172 points, just one ahead of Winona State (171) for fifth.
Earning the top spot in the NSIC preseason poll is quite a feat, as the league boasts seven of the top-21, six of the top-12, five of the top-8 and three of the top-4 teams in the country in the final 2016 AVCA Division II Coaches Poll (#'s 1, 2, 4, 7, 8, 12, 21).
In a dominant postseason run, CSP claimed victories in 19 straight matches to close out the season and won 36 of the final 37 sets in the last 12 matches. The conference title was Concordia's 13th regular season championship in head coach
Brady Starkey's 14 seasons while the conference tournament title with the fifth for the program and second in a row.
Concordia will trot out something of a new-look lineup in 2017 after graduating a senior class that featured five former All-Americans from last season's championship squad.
One familiar face will be senior outside hitter
Mariya Sampson. Sampson has been a steady contributor to the Golden Bear attack in her three years on campus and is coming off a season in which she ranked fourth on the team with 223 kills and 2.97 kills per set.
CSP also returns the duo of senior
Shelby Seurer and sophomore
Sara Macek in the middle after the two shared time at the position last season. Seurer provided a formidable presence in the middle as she put up a team-best 1.15 blocks per set in 20 matches while Macek gave the Golden Bears another efficient hitter as she hit .456 with 2.38 kills per set in her 19 appearances on the year.
The Golden Bears will once again navigate a tough schedule with 10 matches against teams that finished inside the top-25 in the final AVCA poll last year, including three in the opening two weekends of the season in the non-conference slate with potential to add more ranked opponents on the second day of the Colorado Premier Challenge based on pool play results.
Concordia opens the season September 1-2 at the Florida Southern/Tampa Tournament where it will play last season's #14 ranked Western Washington and Florida Southern on day one in Lakeland, Florida before facing Central Washington and last season's #24 ranked Tampa on day two in Tampa.
The Bears play four matches September 8-9 in the Colorado Premier Challenge in Denver before coming back to St. Paul for the home and conference opener against Upper Iowa on September 14.
The AVCA Division II Top-25 Preseason Coaches Poll is expected to be released on August 14.
