The preseason poll and All-Big 12 honorees were announced by the conference on Tuesday morning. The Arizona Wildcats were picked to finish 10th in the 15-team league. The team is led by preseason all-conference selection Carlie Cisneros.
Cisneros will be expected to pick up some of the scoring load that was handled by Jordan Wilson last year. The league’s coaches believe she can,
selecting her as Arizona’s only member of the all-conference team.
Cisneros was selected All-Big 12 Second Team last season after finishing first on the team with 29 total aces and 0.26 aces per set. She also led the team in serve receptions (782) and had the best serve receive percentage among players with more than 25 total receptions (.964). She was second on the team in total kills (347), kills per set (3.10), total points (391.5), and points per set (3.50). She improved both her kills and attempts over her rookie year.
The team was listed as 9th in the standings last year but tied for the sixth-best record in the Big 12. The Wildcats finished 10-8 along with BYU, TCU, and Kansas State. The preseason poll has both UCF (8-10 last season) and Utah (7-11) leapfrogging the Wildcats while Kansas State falls behind.
Arizona State was picked as the preseason favorite with 12 of the 15 votes. TCU picked up the other three first-place votes. The Sun Devils have won the league both years since joining. They feature preseason Player of the Year Noemie Glover.
Arizona is one of 11 teams to place at least one player on the preseason all-conference team. ASU, BYU, and TCU lead the Big 12 with three selections each.
