The University of Minnesota Duluth was picked to finish third in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference for the second consecutive year according to the annual coaches' poll.

The Bulldogs, who are looking for their conference-leading 24th championship and first since 2014, were selected behind Concordia University, St. Paul, the defending NCAA II Champions, and Southwest Minnesota State University. UMD received 194 points while Concordia-St. Paul was selected to finish at the top of the conference with 225 points and 15 first-place votes. Southwest Minnesota State nabbed 210 points and the other lone first-place tally. Northern State University (176 points) and Wayne State College (164) round out the top-five.

The Bulldogs returns with five starters and 10 letterwinners from last year's club that went 26-7 overall and made it to the NCAA central regional final after upsetting regional host SMSU in the NCAA Tournament.

American Coaches Volleyball Association All-American Sarah Kelly remains as one of the league's formidable foes. Kelly was the main component of the offense with 440 kills (3.70 kills/set) and is the UMD representative for preseason player to watch out for in 2018. The two-time All-NSIC first team right side hitter hit at a .414-clip, the third highest percentage in the nation and tops in the league last season.

Back to stabilize the front court are a pair of NSIC second team selections in senior outside hitter Makenzie Morgen and sophomore outside hitter Kate Berg, who led all NSIC freshmen in kills per set (3.20), points per set (3.61) and attacks per set (8.82). Junior Abby Thor and sophomore Lexy Langenfeld will need to fill the shoes of AVCA All-American Allison Olley and the Bulldogs welcome redshirt-transfer outside hitter Mandy Kurosky into the fray.

There will be no shortage of weapons for junior setter Emily Torve to go to. Torve propelled the offense to another top-five hitting offensive performance (.287) for a second straight season. Junior libero Keena Seiffert anchored the squad with 390 digs (3.28 d/s) on the backline including 19 double-digit dig matches with three 20-plus dig efforts throughout 2017.

The 2018 campaign will begin in St. Augustine, Fla. on Aug. 31 when the Bulldogs compete in the Flagler Saints Invitational as they take on the University of Findlay and Flagler College in the first day. The NSIC and home schedules begin Thursday, Sept. 6 when UMD takes on the Bemidji State University in AMSOIL Arena.

At the end of the regular season the top eight teams will play in the single-elimination conference tournament Nov. 6-10, with the opening round hosted on campus by the top four seeds while the semifinals and championship will be hosted by the highest remaining seed. NCAA regional play will be Nov. 15-18 and the NCAA Championships, which is in Pittsburgh, Pa., are held Nov. 29 to Dec. 1.

The season kicks off for the Bulldogs with the first preseason practice tomorrow.