Preseason Polls Name Kentucky as League Winner, Four Wildcats Named to All-SEC

Stop me if you've heard this before- but the University of Kentucky has once again been picked to win the Southeastern Conference in the 2025 season after the preseason polls were announced early Tuesday. 

The preseason polls are voted upon by all sixteen head coaches in the SEC and the Cats took home nine of the 16 first-place votes. Texas received six and Texas A&M, home of stellar right-side hitter Logan Lednicky, picked up one. 

The Cats have finished the season atop the conference with the league title for eight-straight years, shattering the previous school record of two-straight championships set back in the 80s. Even with perennial powerhouse Texas joining the league last season in a year where many assumed the Longhorns would dethrone them, it was Kentucky who captured the SEC Title outright to cement themselves as a league leader that wasn't going away any time soon. 

Along with being picked to win the league, the Cats also saw a league-leading four Wildcats named to the Preseason All-SEC Team. The team is comprised of a 15-person roster voted on by the coaches regardless of position on the court. Returners Brooke Bultema, Molly Tuozzo, and Brooklyn DeLeye all received the honors, as well as incoming transfer Eva Hudson, who heads to Lexington for her final season of eligibility after being with Purdue. 

DeLeye and Hudson will quickly become one of the most dynamic outside hitter combinations in the country, each finishing the year ranked 9th and 10th respectively in kills per set last season. DeLeye is coming off a superb SEC Player of the Year campaign and will look to repeat again this season en route to hopefully leading the Cats to a 9th-straight SEC championship. 

That won't be an easy task, however, as the rest of the league will almost certainly continue the trajectory of improvement that's taken place over the last several years. Texas will be the most obvious challenge for the Cats, especially with the addition of former Pittsburgh outside hitter Torey Stafford, who transferred to Texas with two seasons of eligibility remaining. Don't count out A&M either, as Lednicky's dynamic arm on the right will make her another contender to that SEC Player of the Year title. And while Mary Wise's departure from Florida will certainly make the Gators look a little different, Ryan Theis is a good coach out of Marquette who knows how to establish a winning culture, especially at a storied program like Florida. 

With a brand new setter leading the offense and some new pieces filling roles on the court for the first time in Lexington this season, if the Cats want to make the preseason expectations a reality it's going to take a lot of intentional effort from every player on that roster. But from the sound of the reports coming out of Lexington already, I think the Cats are ready to put in the work.