SIU Volleyball picked third in preseason MVC poll

08/17/2016 | 9:52:00 | Women's Volleyball

Salukis were one of four teams to garner at least one first-place vote in the annual coaches' poll.

By: Will Becque, SIUSalukis.com

MVC Release

ST. LOUIS – The Southern Illinois University volleyball team has been picked to finish third in the Missouri Valley Conference, according to the annual preseason coaches' poll.

Wichita State is the league's preseason favorite to repeat as MVC champion, earning seven first-place votes and 97 total points, while Missouri State was picked to finish second with 85 points and one first-place vote. SIU was one of four teams to garner a first-place vote, tallying 82 points while UNI secured 72 points and a first-place vote.

The Valley saw five league teams win 20-plus matches in 2015, with four teams, including SIU, earning berths to the NCAA Tournament.

Southern returns four starters and the libero from last year's team that posted the most wins in a single-season since 2002 and made the program's first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance. The Salukis capped the season at 23-10, going 14-4 in league play. Southern's 14 wins in Valley play were the most in school history.

The Salukis are entering their fifth season under the direction of head coach Justin Ingram, who has led the program to a 80-47 record and four-straight seasons of 10-plus wins in conference play, the longest such streak in program history. Southern has won 20-plus games in three of Ingram's four seasons at the helm, culminating in Ingram being honored as the MVC's Coach of the Year last season.

The Salukis will be led once again by redshirt junior outside hitter Andrea Estrada, who was selected to the Preseason All-MVC team. Estrada earned MVC First-Team honors a year ago after finishing fourth in the league in kills with a 3.56 kills per set average to go along with 3.13 digs per set. The Bogota, Colombia native needs just 247 kills to join the 1,000-kill club.

In addition to Estrada, Southern returns seniors Hannah Kaminsky, Meg Viggars, Mariana Pilon and juniors Nellie Fredriksson and Alex Rosignol.

Kaminsky returns for her senior season and will look to ascend SIU's all-time assists leaderboard. The senior setter from Woodridge, Ill. has tallied 2,603 career assists, the sixth-most in school history and needs just 194 to move into the top-five.

Viggars, who played in all of SIU's 130 sets a year ago, could become just the 11^th Saluki in the 1,000-digs club and has an outside chance to become the fifth in program history to notch 1,000 kills and 1,000 digs in a career, needing 69 digs and 286 kills to do so. The All-MVC First-Team selection a year ago is one of the most versatile players in the conference, if not the country, as she finished sixth in the nation with six triple-doubles and averaged a full block per set.

Pilon is entering her second season as the Saluki libero after transferring from Salt Lake Community College. In her first year with the program, the Sao Paulo, Brazil native led the team with a 3.71 digs per set average, the ninth-best average in the Missouri Valley.

Fredricksson started 21 matches a year ago at outside hitter and attacked at a .231 clip while Rosignol's 1.51 blocks per set average was the ninth-highest average in the nation.

SIU opens the year at the IUPUI Invitational on August 26. The Salukis will first take on Central Michigan on Aug. 26, followed by matches against Duquesne and IUPUI on Aug. 27. The following weekend will serve as Southern's home opener, with the Salukis opening up their home slate against Central Florida on Sept. 2 at 7 p.m.