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BYU continues to be the favorite to win a championship in the preseason polls.
The Cougars received all but four first-place votes to finish atop the MPSF Preseason Coaches Poll that was released Thursday.
BYU enters the upcoming season having a conference-high three Off the Block/Springbak, Inc. Preseason All-American Team selections, opposite Ben Patch along with outside attackers Jake Langlois and Brenden Sander. In addition, the team returns a majority of starters after finishing last season in fifth place in the MPSF and advancing to the conference tournament semifinals.
This is the second time this week that BYU was ranked No. 1 in a preseason poll. The Cougars also earned the top ranking in the recently released preseason national coaches poll.
The defending-MPSF champions UC Irvine earned two first-place votes and finished six points behind BYU at No. 2 in the conference preseason poll.
Along with BYU and UC Irvine, UCLA, Long Beach State, UC Santa Barbara and Hawai’i round-out the top-half of the preseason poll. Both UCLA and UC Santa Barbara each also received a first-place vote.
The MPSF Preseason Coaches Poll is voted on by the 12 head coaches in the conference.
The MPSF season will begin in January and conclude with the conference tournament in April.
2015 MPSF Preseason Coaches Poll
1. BYU — 112 (8) points
2. UC Irvine — 106 (2) points
3. UCLA — 95 (1) points
4. Long Beach State — 89 points
5. UC Santa Barbara — 86 (1) points
6. Hawai’i — 75 points
7. Pepperdine — 63 points
8. Stanford — 53 points
9. USC — 50 points
10. CSUN — 30 points
11. Cal Baptist — 21 points
12. UC San Diego — 12 points