By
Bryan Rosenbaum
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Wildcats ranked as high as No. 7 in preseason polls
Last year at this time, the UA football team had high aspirations. This year, the focus is on the McKale Center as the summer comes to a close, and it's not to check out the men's basketball team's informal workouts.
The UA volleyball team is now the program with great expectations, both from themselves and the two national preseason polls.
The Wildcats are ranked 10th in the USA Today/AVAC preseason poll and predicted to finish fourth in the Pacific 10 Conference.
The Pac-10 was well-represented in the poll, with UCLA, Stanford, and Southern California all ranked in the top-10 nationally.
UA head coach David Rubio is excited about the upcoming season.
"The Pac-10 is a very competitive conference, arguably the best in the nation," Rubio told the Arizona Sports Information Department. "With this being the first time an Arizona team has entered the season with a top-10 ranking, we are very excited about the opportunity to improve and move up in the polls and conference standings."
Volleyball Magazine ranks the Wildcats as the No. 7 team in the nation.
"Single digits is a new area for us," Rubio said. "It's very exciting to be ranked that high. We're honored, but the reality of it is it doesn't make any difference. It's the final ranking of the season that really means something."
The Wildcats finished 21-11 in 1999 and were the No. 14 team in the nation, reaching the NCAA Sweet 16 before falling to the eventual national runner-up, Stanford.
The No. 10 preseason ranking is the team's highest since 1989, when Arizona was No. 11.
Arizona returns five of its six starters, including senior middle blocker Marisa DaLee and junior setter Dana Burkholder, both of whom were named to the All-Pac-10 and All-District 8 teams last season.
Arizona will put its rank on the line in its first match of the season against the University of California-Santa Barbara in San Diego on Sept. 1.
The Wildcat's aggressive scheduling won't stop there - the Wildcats will face nine teams on the preseason top-25 list during the course of the season.
