Pac-12 women's volleyball begins 2015 season

• Pac-12 Preseason Coaches Poll & All-Pac-12 Team | AVCA Preseason Coaches Poll

• A league-record nine Pac-12 teams were ranked in the AVCA’s Preseason Coaches’ poll and one more received votes. Pac-12 favorite STANFORD was the highest-ranked team, earning a No. 2 national ranking. WASHINGTON was 10th, ARIZONA STATE was 16th, ARIZONA was 17th and UCLA was No. 20. At No. 22 was USC, followed by No. 23 UTAH and No. 24 COLORADO. OREGON STATE received votes.

• The Pac-12 is coming off another historic season which saw an unprecedented 10 teams earn NCAA Tournament bids and went a perfect 10-0 in the first round of the postseason.

• Last year, 14 players were named AVCA All-Americans and eight return for 2015 including senior standouts such as Stanford’s Madi Bugg and Jordan Burgess, USC’s Samantha Bricio, UO’s Martenne Bettendorf, ASU’s Macey Gardner and UW’s Lianna Sybeldon. Sophomores Merete Lutz of Stanford and Mary-Kate Marshall of OSU also return to help lead their respective teams this season.

•  Pac-12 teams have had early success in recent years, posting an impressive 305-74 (.805) record in the first weekend of play since 2002. In last season's opening weekend, league teams won a combined 32 matches, a Conference record, while dropping only three for a .906 winning percentage.

• One new coach will be roaming the Pac-12 sidelines after WASHINGTON announced the hiring of Keegan Cook, who replaced former UW coach Jim McLaughlin. However, Cook may look familiar to some as he served as an assistant coach under McLaughlin the last two years, helping the Huskies advance to the NCAA semifinal in 2013. Also in coaching news, UTAH head coach Beth Launiere needs just nine more victories for career No. 500. She has spent all 25 years of her career in Salt Lake City.

• FAB Freshman … Pac-12 volleyball continues to recruit marquee student-athletes. Seven Pac-12 teams landed at least one Volleyball Magazine FAB 50 recruit with OREGON pacing the Conference with four. STANFORD signed the nation’s top recruit according to the publication in Hayley Hodson.

• Once again, the Pac-12 will have the most comprehensive volleyball television coverage of any league in the country. 95 total matches will be broadcast live, with 92 being televised on the Conference’s Pac-12 Network. Another three more were selected to be televised on ESPNU. For the full television schedule, visit pac-12.com. Second-ranked Stanford kicks off the television schedule hosting Texas A&M on Friday, while USC hosts seventh-ranked North Carolina on the same night. On Saturday, Colorado hosts No. 9 Florida State on the Network and the Trojans take on 11th ranked BYU.

UPCOMING SCHEDULE (All Times Pacific)

1 - Radford Highlander Invitational, Radford, Va.; 2 - Temple Invitational, Philadelphia, Pa.; 3 - Northwest Challenge, Spokane, Wash.; 4 - Falcon Classic, Colorado Springs, Colo.; 5 - SMU Invitational, Dallas, Texas; 6 - Omni Classic, Boulder, Colo.; 7 - Utah Classic, Salt Lake City, Utah; 8 - Molten Classic, Berkeley, Calif.; 9 - Hawai’i Tournament, Honolulu, Hawai’i; 10 - Women of Troy Baden Invitational, Los Angeles, Calif.

HISTORICALLY SPEAKING

• The Pac-12 has captured six of the last 14 NCAA crowns (2011 - UCLA, 2005 - Washington, 2004 - Stanford, 2003 - USC, 2002 - USC, 2001 - Stanford) and 14 NCAA titles overall.

• The Pac-12 has had 10 or more All-Americans selections in eight of the last 10 years. Last year, 11 were named to the AVCA All-America squad, the most since 13 were selected in 2009. Ten former Pac-12 players have earned All-America honors four times, while another 18 players in all have earned All-American honors three times.

• Since 1990, Pac-12 players garnered AVCA Player of the Year honors 13 times, including the last four of the last five years - CAL’s Carli Lloyd (2010), USC’s Alex Jupiter (2011), ORE’s Alaina Bergsma (2012) and WASH’s Krista Vansant (2013). The NCAA Honda Sports Award honor has been bestowed upon a Pac-12 volleyball player 13 times, including Vansant in 2013.

• The current group of Pac-12 volleyball coaches enters the 2015 season with nearly 5,000 Division I victories to its credit, having compiled 4,822 wins in a combined 219 years of head coaching experience. That averages out to nearly 23 wins a season for each coach per season. In addition, these coaches have guided NCAA Division I teams to 38 NCAA semifinal appearances and eight NCAA titles. In the last 13 years, seven different coaches have been named the ASICS/Volleyball Magazine Coach of the Year and/or the AVCA Coach of the Year - Arizona’s David Rubio (2001 ASICS), California’s Rich Feller (2007 ASICS, 2010 ASICS and AVCA), Stanford’s John Dunning (2001 AVCA), UCLA’s Mike Sealy (2011 AVCA), USC’s Mick Haley (2003 AVCA), Washington’s Jim McLaughlin (2004 ASICS and AVCA), and UCLA’s Andy Banachowski (2006 ASICS and AVCA).