The American Volleyball Coaches Association released its annual NVA/AVCA Preseason Coaches Poll Monday with the defending national champions ranked at an overwhelming No. 1 heading into the 2020 season.

The State University of New York at New Paltz played its best volleyball to end 2019. The Hawks won their final 10 games of the season en route to a United Volleyball Conference (UVC) Championship, which gave them an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. They went on to defeat Baruch and Endicott College in the first two rounds before de-throning the defending NCAA champions and former No. 1 Springfield College in the semifinals to set a matchup with UC-Santa Cruz where they earned a 3-1 victory to claim the program's second NCAA trophy in three years.
 

"We just kind of have to stay humble," said SUNY New Paltz senior outside hitter Aaron Carrk. "Being No. 1 comes with a lot of responsibility and comes with a lot of pressure too. You kind of have to treat yourself like that too. You got to make sure you're running the team for everyone to succeed and make sure the same success occurs that we had last year."

The Hawks totaled 368 points and earned 20 first place votes to claim the top spot. The Pride sit at No. 2 with 331 points and two first place votes, followed by UVC rival Stevens, while the Gulls and Carthage round out the top-5.

Before opening up its 2020 campaign to defend its national championship at the Clash at Kean tournament against Stevenson and Benedictine Jan. 18, SUNY New Paltz will fly to the Dominican Republic to compete in a couple exhibition games in Mao, Valverde. 

"Of course we have high expectations coming in at No. 1 in the country and we realize we have a really big target on our back, but in practice we are always mentally preparing ourselves for that target and we know a lot of teams will come out and give us their best," said Hawks senior setter Matthew Grace. "Just preparing together, playing good volleyball that is what we're going to do."

To view the full 2020 AVCA men's volleyball coaches preseason poll release, click here.

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