WHITEFISH, Mont. – The University of Providence women's volleyball team was ranked #2 in the Frontier Conference Preseason Coaches Poll.

The defending Frontier Conference Tournament Champions trailed only Montana Tech in the poll.The Argos were one of three teams who received a first-place vote; the Argos had two, the Orediggers had three and the Fighting Saints from Carroll had one.

Though the Argos have won the Frontier Conference Tournament Championship in each of the past two seasons, they weren't voted as the top spot. Head coach Arunas Duda muses the reason might be because the team lost three starters to graduation; Averi Dyer, Kelsey Shaver and Tyna William.

"We lost a lot this last year," Duda said. "Kelsey and Averi were six-rotation players for us. They were a cornerstone of our serve-receive and defense. We lost our top three hitters. You can see where we wouldn't be ranked top in the conference."

However, that doesn't mean that interanlly Duda doesn't have high expectations for the team. On one of the Zoom calls over the summer with the team, athletic director Doug Hashley introduced the team as "two-time defending champions", setting the stage for a season of high expectations. 

"We have a lot of exciting pieces coming back," Duda said. "Jensyn looks better than ever. Having your libero and setter return and playing at a higher level helps your team out. Ember always does a great job for us in the middle. We're very fortunate to have those very important pieces back."

"We also have a couple of wrinkles that we weren't expecting when the season started that now some players are in positions that we didn't expect to be in," he said. "It's kind of a nice problem to have. We're really trying to put all our best athletes on the court and just see how well we compete that way."

The Argos won't have much time to figure things out, as the team begins their season on Friday with a game against Carroll at 7 p.m. A second game will be played Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m.

"The Frontier is definitely a tough conference," Duda said. "Rosters are stacked with talent top to bottom. That helps us out. We don't want a week where we play an easy team and you're not being challenged. In the Frontier, if you don't show up to play, you lose whether you're ranked first or last. It'll keep you on your toes for sure."



Below are the results for the Frontier Conference Preseason Coaches Poll. Coaches were not allowed to vote for their own teams. First place was worth five points, second place worth four points, third place worth three points, fourth place worth two points and fifth place one. One ballot gave both Montana Tech and Rocky Mountain College a second place vote. The points for second and third were added together and divided by two with each school receiving half of the total.
 

Team (1st place votes)	Points
Montana Tech (3)	22.5
Providence (2)	21
Carroll (1)	16
Rocky Mountain	12.5
Montana Western	11
Montana State-Northern	7