We’re finally here! Watching volleyball at the Olympics has been great, but nothing is better than the start of college volleyball season and actually going to see your favorite teams in person! The first serve of the season will be Wednesday when North Carolina Central heads to Winston Salem State. Things really take off though on Friday when almost 200 matches take place in Division I. One of those will be Tennessee taking on in-state rival Chattanooga at the Marquette Kick-Off Tournament in Milwaukee WI.

The pollsters have got a head start on the players with several preseason polls available. The premier poll, the CBS CSN/AVCA poll has defending national champion Penn State on top followed by Stanford, Texas, USC, and Cal. Two SEC teams made the cut with Florida at #8 and LSU at #21. The Molten/Volleyball Magazine poll lists Penn State, Stanford, USC, Texas, and Nebraska as the top 5 with Florida again coming in at #8. RichKern.com has Penn State, Stanford, Texas, USC, and UCLA on top with Florida at #9 and LSU at #21. The Pablo Rankings has it Penn State, Stanford, Nebraska, Texas, and USC. Going further, Pablo ranks the SEC teams in relation to the entire 325 teams of Division I as: #20 Florida. #49 LSU, #65 Ole Miss, #70 Kentucky, #96 Alabama, #112 South Carolina, #121 Mississippi State, #134 Georgia and Tennessee, and #183 Auburn.

ESPN takes an in depth look at four of the contenders for the 2008 national championship.

The SEC has released the TV schedule for conference volleyball on FSN’s regional sports networks — (a seemingly rather paltry) five matches will be televised this year. The South Carolina at Tennessee match will air on November 16 (tape-delayed by two hours). Maybe CBS CSN can pick up a few more. If you have Sun Sports (an RSN in Florida, also available through Direct TV and DISH) you’ll be able to catch at least three more SEC matches including Tennessee at Florida on October 12th. Cox Sports Television (a Gulf Coast RSN) will air some conference matches as well this season, but none of the Lady Vols’.

Tennessee doesn’t play their home opener until September 12th, when they face Gardner-Webb and Illinois. So there is still plenty of time to order season tickets! The website still says they are unavailable but just call the number on the page to order.

Congratulations to USA Volleyball on their best Olympics ever! The United States won gold in men’s indoor, men’s beach, and women’s beach volleyball, and won silver in women’s indoor volleyball. This is the first time in Olympic history a single county has medaled in all four volleyball events! Hopefully this showing will help build even more interest in the sport here in the United States.

I don’t usually report on the Tennessee women’s club volleyball team. But I wanted to wish them luck at the 2008 NCCS National Volleyball Championships that start today in Dallas, Texas! You can read more about this year’s team here.

Congratulations to Penn State on winning a thrilling five game match to take home the 2007 NCAA Division I volleyball national championship! The Nittany Lions withstood a comeback attempt by a tough Stanford team to win 3-2 (30-25, 30-26, 23-30, 19-30, 15-8).

The 2008 Final Four will be played in Omaha, Nebraska - which is just 919 miles from Knoxville…

Last night the 64 teams that will play in the 2007 NCAA Tournament were announced. Five SEC teams made the cut - Florida (27-2), LSU (24-7), Mississippi (25-7), Kentucky (22-9), and Alabama (15-14). The full bracket is available at the NCAA website.

ESPN.com has a feature on this week’s AVCA Showcase. The article discusses some history of the event, possible changes in its format, and competition from other games this year.

A second article looks at the possible contenders for the Division I national championship this year.