UCI men’s volleyball ranked No. 1 in nation

The UC Irvine men’s volleyball team received all 16 first-place votes to top the American Volleyball Coaches’ Assn. national preseason poll released Friday.

It’s the first time the Anteaters, who won their third NCAA title in the last six seasons in 2012, have begun the season in the No. 1 spot. They opened at No. 2 each of the last three seasons.

UCI received 240 points in the poll, followed by BYU (222), Stanford (191), Pepperdine (183), Lewis (162), UCLA (154), Long Beach State (139), Penn State (124), USC (109) and Loyola-Chicago (101).

Coming off a 26-5 campaign, UCI will play host to Concordia in an exhibition match on Tuesday at 7 p.m. at Crawford Court.

UCI, under first-year coach David Kniffin, opens the regular season at the UC Santa Barbara Invitational on Jan. 4-5.

— From staff reports