This is a Brescia Athletics press release.
The 2020 River States Conference Volleyball Coaches Preseason Poll has selected Indiana University Kokomo as the preseason favorite this year. It is familiar territory for the Cougars, who have won four of the last five conference tournament championships, including last year.
The poll was conducted with voting from the 12 RSC volleyball head coaches. IU Kokomo led the polling with 117 overall votes and eight of the 12 first-place votes. Indiana University Southeast was picked second overall with 105 votes and two first place votes.
IU Kokomo is coming off a season of 27-14 overall and 13-3 RSC. The Cougars won the 2019 RSC Championship tournament as the No. 2 seed out of the RSC West and qualified for the NAIA national tournament once again. IU Kokomo won its NAIA Opening Round matchup to make a return trip to the final site.
Brescia finished 28-9 overall and 15-1 RSC last year were the conference regular-season champions, division winner and a national qualifier. Brescia University was picked third with 100 votes and the remaining two first-place nods as the top three teams in the voting all came from the RSC West Division.
Point Park (Pa.) University was picked fourth overall as the defending RSC East champion. The Pioneers (22-9, 12-4 RSC) got 83 votes, which was one more than Indiana University East as those divisional rivals have been very close for several years. IU East had 82 votes and earned its fifth-overall citation after being 18-15, 9-7 RSC.
Asbury University (13-16, 8-8 RSC) was picked sixth overall with 72 votes after being an RSC semifinalist last year. WVU Tech (24-12, 10-6 RSC) was next in seventh place with 63 votes after making a run to the conference finals a year ago.
University of Rio Grande (Ohio) registered eighth in the poll with 54 votes. Midway University was close behind in ninth place with 50 votes. Ohio Christian University (32 votes), conference newcomer Oakland City (Ind.) University (20 votes) and Carlow (Pa.) University (14 votes) rounded out the 12 teams.
2020 RSC VOLLEYBALL COACHES’ PRESEASON COACHES’ POLL
(First-Place Votes in Parenthesis)
| School | Votes |
| 1. IU Kokomo (8) | 117 |
| 2. IU Southeast (2) | 105 |
| 3. Brescia (Ky.) (2) | 100 |
| 4. Point Park (Pa.) | 83 |
| 5. IU East | 82 |
| 6. Asbury (Ky.) | 72 |
| 7. WVU Tech | 63 |
| 8. Rio Grande (Ohio) | 54 |
| 9. Midway (Ky.) | 50 |
| 10. Ohio Christian | 32 |
| 11. Oakland City (Ind.) | 20 |
| 12. Carlow (Pa.) | 14 |
