INDIANAPOLIS – Northern Kentucky University volleyball ranks at the top the 2022 #HLVB Preseason Poll. The Norse earned six first-place votes to edge out Milwaukee and earn the top spot in voting done by the League's 10 head coaches, as was release by the conference Thursday afternoon. 
 
Following a strong 2021 campaign, posting a 15-2 League record and advancing to the championship match, NKU (96 points) returns three All-League First Team selections in Reilly Briggs, Anna Brinkmann and Abby Kanakry and brings back All-Freshman Team honorees Joy Banks and Sequoia Hunt in 2022, and additionally head coach Liz Hart is the reigning Horizon League Coach of the Year. 

This marks Brinkmann's third-consecutive nod to the first team last season. She closed the regular season averaging 3.60 kills and 3.08 digs per set. Brinkmann also finished with 14 double-doubles, recording them against Missouri, current No. 1 Louisville, Wright State (twice) and Milwaukee. She also broke the 1,000-kill and 1,000-dig plateaus this year, becoming the 11^th player in program history in the exclusive 1,000-kill, 1,000-dig club. Brinkmann was also named Horizon League Player of the Week twice last year.
 
Briggs had a standout season on the rightside during 2021, recording 3.08 kills per set on the strength of a .291 attacking percentage. In league play, those numbers improve to 3.37 kps and .329 hitting. She also earned her first-ever Horizon League Player of the Week Award on Oct. 6, 2021 following a three-match week. She registered 17 kills behind a .414 hitting clip at Milwaukee to open the week, and ended it with a career-high 20 kills while hitting .531 against Robert Morris.
 
Kanakry closed the season third for the Norse in kills, averaging 2.09 per set thanks to a .272 attacking percentage. She also recorded 0.95 blocks per set to help Northern Kentucky lead the league as the most-potent blocking team. Against conference opposition, she improved her kill rate to 2.22 per set and hit a more efficient .317. As an outside hitter for the Norse, Banks posted 1.72 kills per set while contributing 0.63 digs and 0.41 blocks per set to earn all-freshman recognition. She had three double-figure kill totals on the year, including 12 against South Dakota and 10 versus Missouri.

As one of the most-pivotal reasons why the Norse were the most-potent blocking team in the league, Hunt also earned all-freshman honors after ranking third in the conference in blocks in all matches (1.08 bps) and leading in league-only contests (1.25 bps). Hunt's most impressive blocking performance came in NKU's sweep of regular-season champion Milwaukee, when she registered nine total blocks, three solo and six assisted, across the three sets. In her 12^th season as head coach of the Norse, Hart has collected the first coach of the year nod of her career. Not only did she lead NKU to a 19-7 overall record this season, but she surpassed 200 career wins in the process when Northern Kentucky defeated Cleveland State on Oct. 16. NKU needs just one more win to notch its fourth 20-win season under Hart's guidance.
 
The Norse kick start their season tomorrow, Friday, August 26 at 11 a.m. (ET) against No. 4 ranked Louisville at the 2022 Coyote Invitational hosted by the University of South Dakota in Vermillion, S.D. Northern Kentucky will also face Missouri and South Dakota during this invitational as well. 
 
2022 #HLVB Preseason Poll
Pl.       Team – Pts. (First-place votes)
1.         Northern Kentucky (6) – 96
2.         Milwaukee (4) – 93
3.         Wright State – 78
4.         Green Bay – 69
5.         Purdue Fort Wayne – 56
6.         Oakland – 51
7.         Cleveland State – 39
8.         IUPUI – 28
9.         Youngstown State – 24
10.       RMU – 16

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