The Drake University volleyball team has been picked sixth in the annual Missouri Valley Conference preseason coaches poll, the MVC announced Wednesday, Aug. 16. The Bulldogs' projected finish in the poll is the program's highest preseason projection since the 2011 season.
 
Missouri State, the defending regular-season MVC Champions, were the unanimous favorite to repeat as champions, followed by UNI in second and Illinois State in third. Loyola and SIU were tabbed third and fourth, respectively. Drake was voted ahead of MVC newcomer Valparaiso, Bradley, Indiana State and Evansville.
 
The Valley will look to continue to build off the success of another tremendous season in 2016 that saw three teams make the NCAA Tournament.  It was the seventh time in league history at least three Valley teams made the NCAA field. The MVC was one of seven leagues to earn three or more bids, joining the Big Ten (8), Pac 12 (8), Big 12 (6), SEC (4), ACC (3), and Mountain West (3).
 
The Bulldogs aim to build off their best season since 2010 after going 17-15 in 2016 to record the program's first winning season in six years. The team's 17 wins and its eight Missouri Valley Conference wins were also the most by the Bulldogs since 2010.
 
The Bulldogs return six student-athletes that made significant contributions in 2016, including senior and three-year starter Kyla Inderski. Last season, Inderski recorded 400 kills, the eighth most ever by a Bulldog in a season, for a 3.31 kills per set average. She enters this season with 1,044 career kills to rank seventh all-time in Drake history. She also ranks seventh all-time in digs at Drake with 1,058 and is just the fourth Bulldog ever to record both 1,000 kills and 1,000 digs.
 
Grace Schofield and Odessa Cody also return after notching 175 and 186 kills, respectively last season. Schofield is also the team's returning leader in aces and is second in digs and her efforts last season helped the Bulldogs rank second in the Valley in aces and digs.
 
The Bulldogs also added one of the top recruiting classes in the Missouri Valley Conference and earned honorable mention honors from PrepVolleyball.com for their recruiting efforts. Joining the Bulldogs in 2017 will be Oklahoma transfer Cathryn Cheek as well as highly touted signees Natalie Fry, Gillian Gergen, Hannah McCarthy, and Emily Plock.