Angelo State is the top choice to claim the Lone Star Conference title, according to the 2017 LSC volleyball preseason poll announced Tuesday.

      The league's preseason polls reflect the opinions of LSC head coaches and sports information directors, plus various media representatives from throughout the region.

      ASU, the reigning LSC regular season and tournament champions, won its first-ever South Central Region title and advanced to the NCAA Championship last season with a 34-4 overall and 18-2 LSC record.

      The Rambelles earned first-place votes on 21 of the 32 ballots for a total of 340 points.  Tarleton State ranked second with nine top votes to finish with 326 points, followed by Texas A&M-Kingsville in third with 267 points and one first-place tally.

      Texas A&M-Commerce was fourth with 236 points, while West Texas A&M was fifth with one top vote (233), and Eastern New Mexico sixth (204).  Western New Mexico (153), Texas Woman's (120), Midwestern State (106), UT Permian Basin (74) and Cameron (53) rounded out the poll.

      The 2017 volleyball season begins in early September, with 11 teams set to compete.  LSC teams will use a one-conference double round-robin scheduling model, in which each team plays a home and away match against each of the other teams.

      The LSC champion will be the regular season winner determined by league matches, while the postseason tournament winner is designated as LSC Tournament Champion and earns the conference’s automatic qualification.  The top eight teams in the final conference standings qualify for the postseason tournament set for Thursday, Friday and Saturday, November 16-17-18, at the No. 1 seed.
 
2017 LSC Volleyball Preseason Poll

Rank	Team	1st	Total
1	Angelo State	21	340
2	Tarleton State	9	326
3	Texas A&M-Kingsville	1	267
4	Texas A&M-Commerce		236
5	West Texas A&M	1	233
6	Eastern New Mexico		204
7	Western New Mexico		153
8	Texas Woman's		120
9	Midwestern State		106
10	UT Permian Basin		74
11	Cameron		53