Louisville Volleyball Ranked 7th in AVCA Preseason Poll

The Cards will play 13 matches against preseason Top 20 foes.

New Louisville volleyball head coach Dan Meske | University of Louisville Athletics

Louisville Volleyball has asserted themselves as a fixture in the AVCA (American Volleyball Coaches Association) poll in the current decade (2020).  This season will start no different, as the Cards find themselves ranked No. 7 in this season’s preseason poll.  Louisville has not fallen out of the Top 10 in the rankings since the 09/06/2021 polls, which makes 79 weeks straight between preseason and weekly polls. 

Coach Dan Meske enters his second season at the helm for The Ville and will be facing one of the nation’s toughest slates.  In the non-conference, there are seven matchups against preseason Top 20 teams (noted in the poll below).  ACC foes Pittsburgh, Stanford, SMU and North Carolina will start the season with numbers next to their name as well.  Louisville will face all four of them, including home/home matchups with the Mustangs and the Tar Heels.

The Cards open the season next Friday, August 21 at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee against the defending national champion & preseason No. 8 Texas A&M Aggies.  The matchup is slated for a 6 pm ET first serve and will be nationally televised on ESPN2.  The following afternoon the Cards will face preseason No. 6 Wisconsin also in Milwaukee in what is expected to be a virtual road contest. 

Full AVCA Preseason Top 25 (noted with dates and locations of Louisville’s opponents)

1. Nebraska (1,568 total points adjusted) 57 first place votes (of 63)

2.       Texas (1,427) 1 first place vote - 9/6 Nashville

3.       Kentucky (1,398) 4 first place votes - 9/20 Lexington

4.       Pittsburgh (1,383) -11/15 Pittsburgh

5.       Stanford (1,312) -10/11 L&N Federal Credit Union Arena

6.       Wisconsin (1,268) - 8/22 Milwaukee

7.       Louisville (1,140)

8.       Texas A&M (1,089) 1 first place vote – 8/21 Milwaukee

9.       Purdue (1,002)

10.  Penn State (947)

11.  SMU (934) - 11/12 Dallas 11/28 KFC Yum Center

12.  Arizona State (920)

13.  Creighton (843) - 9/12 Houston

14.  Minnesota (721)

15.  Kansas (566)

16.  Indiana (497) - 8/28 L&N Federal Credit Union Arena

17.  Florida (455)

18.  TCU (444) - 9/4 L&N Federal Credit Union Arena

19.  North Carolina (437) - 10/18 L&N Federal Credit Union Arena 11/23 Chapel Hill

20.  Southern California (395)

21.  Baylor (361)

22.  Tennessee (194)

23.  Colorado (180)

24.  BYU (161)

25.  Oregon (138)