The Wayland Baptist volleyball team begins the 2014 season ranked third in the Tachikara-NAIA Volleyball Coaches' Preseason Top 25 Poll.
The Pioneers are coming off their best season ever, advancing to the semifinals of the NAIA National Championships in their first trip to nationals in the 22-year history of the program. Wayland finished with a program-best 36-7 record and a No. 4 ranking.
Wayland started last season ranked the equivalent of No. 33 in the nation.
"It is nice that the rest of the raters are giving us some respect and love," WBU coach
Jim Giacomazzi said. "Now we have even a bigger target (on our backs) than before."
The Pioneers, who won all five matches (25-14, 25-21, 25-17, 25-15, 29-27) played against Odessa College in their only scrimmage on Monday night in Hutcherson Center, open the season with a tournament in Daytona Beach, Fla., hosted by Embry-Riddle, on Aug. 29 and 30. The Pioneers play their first home match on Sept. 11 against SAC opponent Mid-America Christian. That match will be followed by four home matches in the Coca-Cola Classic on Sept. 12 and 13, including a showdown with defending national champion Texas at Brownsville, which beat Wayland in the national semifinals last season, at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 12.
Oklahoma Baptist, the team Wayland will be trying to dethrone as Sooner Athletic Conference champions, opens the season ranked No. 14. The Lady Bison were 33-7 last year.
UT-Brownsville opens the season as the No. 1 team. The Ocelots were the unanimous selection for the seventh-consecutive poll, garnering 20 first-place votes and 560 points.
Last year, Texas at Brownsville claimed its second banner in the last three seasons with a 3-0 (27-25, 27-25, 25-22) sweep of then-No. 3 Biola (Calif.). The Ocelots, who finished 2013 with a perfect 37-0 record, are led by returning first team All-America middle blocker Vania Joksic. The senior native of Serbia ranked second on the squad last season in kills (305) and blocks (108), while leading the team with a .498 attack percentage. Texas at Brownsville tries to become the first team since 2010 to be the preseason No. 1 and win the national championship in the same season.
No. 2 Concordia (Calif.), No. 3 Wayland and No. 4 Madonna (Mich.) each slid up one spot from the 2013 postseason edition with 542, 516 and 480 points, respectively. The Eagles, who reached the semifinals of the 2013 national championship before falling to Golden State Athletic Conference rival Biola, have now been ranked among the top three in 37 straight polls.
Arguably the biggest surprise of the 2013 season was Wayland. The Pioneers, who started the year unranked, went 6-1 in the postseason before eventually bowing out in the semis to Texas at Brownsville. Wayland returns a strong nucleus that includes first team All-American
Shahala Hawkins and all-conference performers
Chelsey Driskill, Ashlynn Westerman and
Mercades Torres.
No. 5 Northwestern (Iowa) rounds out the top five with 479 points. The Red Raiders were selected the preseason favorite to win the Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC), earning eight of the 11 possible first-place votes by the league's coaches.
Thirteen of the 23 conferences are represented throughout the Top 25, led by the GSAC's four teams – Concordia, No. 8 Biola, No. 19 The Master's (Calif.) and No. 22 Vanguard (Calif.). The GPAC and the American Midwest Conference land a trio of schools in the poll.
The poll was voted upon by a panel of head coaches representing each of the conferences and Independents. The first regular-season Top 25 will be announced Sept. 9.
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Tachikara-NAIA Volleyball Coaches' Preseason Top 25 Poll
| RANK | LAST WEEK^ | SCHOOL (1ST PLACE VOTES) | 2013 Record | TOTAL POINTS |
| 1 | 1 | Texas at Brownsville (20) | 37-0 | 560 |
| 2 | 3 | Concordia (Calif.) | 27-3 | 542 |
| 3 | 4 | Wayland Baptist (Texas) | 36-7 | 516 |
| 4 | 5 | Madonna (Mich.) | 41-2 | 480 |
| 5 | 9 | Northwestern (Iowa) | 36-4 | 479 |
| 6 | 8 | Grand View (Iowa) | 34-14 | 446 |
| 7 | 7 | Midland (Neb.) | 37-5 | 442 |
| 8 | 2 | Biola (Calif.) | 27-4 | 405 |
| 9 | 11 | Columbia (Mo.) | 30-11 | 399 |
| 10 | 16 | Lindsey Wilson (Ky.) | 36-6 | 381 |
| 11 | 10 | Georgetown (Ky.) | 35-11 | 352 |
| 12 | 15 | Park (Mo.) | 35-7 | 344 |
| 13 | 11 | Dordt (Iowa) | 25-9 | 337 |
| 14 | 13 | Oklahoma Baptist | 33-7 | 333 |
| 15 | RV | Viterbo (Wis.) | 34-13 | 324 |
| 16 | 14 | MidAmerica Nazarene (Kan.) | 27-4 | 308 |
| 17 | 18 | Rocky Mountain (Mont.) | 25-9 | 280 |
| 18 | 24 | College of Idaho | 18-10 | 256 |
| 19 | 6 | The Master's (Calif.) | 23-9 | 254 |
| 20 | 17 | Indiana Wesleyan | 30-12 | 189 |
| 21 | 21 | Embry-Riddle (Fla.) | 22-12 | 178 |
| 22 | 19 | Vanguard (Calif.) | 22-9 | 164 |
| 23 | NR | Eastern Oregon | 25-6 | 146 |
| T24 | RV | Davenport (Mich.) | 31-10 | 140 |
| T24 | RV | Missouri Baptist | 27-7 | 140 |
Others receiving votes: Bellevue (Neb.) 121; Hastings (Neb.) 77; Trinity Christian (Ill.) 65; Westmont (Calif.) 61; Baker (Kan.) 52; Lewis-Clark State (Idaho) 50; Southern Oregon 37; Cal State San Marcos 24; Cornerstone (Mich.) 15; Evangel (Mo.) 8; Asbury (Ky.) 4; Concordia (Ore.) 3; College of the Ozarks (Mo.) 3.
^ Ranking in 2013 Postseason Top 25 Poll (Dec. 11, 2013)Â
