BYU Men’s Volleyball Ranked No. 1 In 2021 Preseason Rankings

PROVO, Utah – BYU men’s volleyball will start the 2021 season where they ended the shortened 2020 season at No. 1.

The preseason 2021 NVA/AVCA Division I/II top 15 poll was released this week, and the Cougars were a unanimous pick to be the top-ranked team.

#️⃣1️⃣ pic.twitter.com/bMId5ov2GS

— BYU Volleyball (@BYUvolleyball) January 6, 2021

BYU brings back a loaded roster that features AVCA National Player of the Year Gabi Garcia Fernandez, All-Americans Wil Stanley, Davide Gardini, and Zach Eschenberg.

Last season, BYU finished 17-1 with its lone loss coming on the islands at Hawaii in a classic five-set match. The season then shut down to COVID-19.

BYU is one of six programs from the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) ranked in the preseason poll. The other league foes include Pepperdine (7), UCLA (9), Grand Canyon (10), Concordia Irvine (12), and Stanford (15).

When BYU will begin its 2021 season is still up in the air. After an intrasquad scrimmage in December, head coach Shawn Olmstead envisioned the season starting in February. But nothing has been announced officially from BYU or the MPSF.

Whenever the season does start, the Cougars will be loaded with the nation’s best team.

BYU Men’s Volleyball atop preseason NVA/AVCA Division I-II poll

1. BYU (14 first-place votes)

2. Hawai’i

3. UC Santa Barbara

4. Long Beach State

5. Lewis

6. UC Irvine

T-7. Pepperdine

T-7. UC San Diego

9. UCLA

10. Grand Canyon

11. Penn State

12. Concordia Irvine

13. George Mason

14. Ohio State

15. Stanford

Others receiving votes and listed on two or more ballots: NJIT; Princeton; Purdue; Fort Wayne; Ball State.

Mitch Harper is a BYU Insider for sports.ksl.com and host of the Cougar Tracks Podcast (SUBSCRIBE) and Cougar Sports Saturday (Saturday from 12–3 p.m., KSL Newsradio). Follow him on Twitter: @Mitch_Harper and the KSL Sports app.