Winners of a record 16-consecutive Southeastern Conference championships, the University of Florida volleyball team was unanimously chosen to make it 17 in a row on Tuesday, the same day it was tabbed as the seventh-ranked team in the land by the American Volleyball Coaches Association.

The Gators, who return all seven starters (including the libero) and more than 90 percent of their kills, assists, blocks and points from a year ago, collected 10 of the 11 first-place votes in a poll of the league’s coaches.

The Gators were also picked to repeat as Eastern Division champions, while Alabama was selected to win the West. Points were compiled on a 1-2-3-4-5 basis for the Eastern Division and a 1-2-3-4-5-6 scale for the Western Division. Coaches were not allowed to vote for his or her own team.

Tuesday afternoon’s announcement of the preseason SEC vote shortly preceded news that the Gators had earned the #7 spot on the CSTV/AVCA Preseason Coaches’ Poll.

UF’s ranking marks the 11th year in a row that it has garnered a spot in the preseason top-10, a feat that only two other schools in the nation – Nebraska and Stanford – can claim. It also stands as the 14th top-10 preseason rating in head coach Mary Wise’s 17-year tenure in Gainesville, as well as the 16th time her squad has been regarded as one of the country’s top 12 teams heading into the season.

Seniors Marcie Hampton, Kisya Killingsworth, Amber McCray and Angie McGinnis will lead a deep and talented Florida team through a schedule that features eight teams on the CSTV/AVCA poll: Long Beach State (#19), Utah (#21), LSU (#23), Santa Clara (#24), Notre Dame (receiving votes), Kentucky (receiving votes), Alabama (receiving votes) and Tennessee (receiving votes).

The SEC placed five teams on the ballot, behind only the Big 10, Big 12 and Pac-10, who had seven representatives apiece.

The University of Florida volleyball team’s 2007 recruiting class tied for 10th in the nation in a recent ranking released by Volleyball Magazine. The Gators, ranked seventh in the CSTV/American Volleyball Coaches Association preseason poll, tied #3 Penn State for a spot in the top-10.

The class’ rating takes into account the additions of opposite hitter Lauren Bledsoe, libero/defensive specialist Erin Fleming and outside hitter Callie Rivers, but does not include outside hitter Kristy Jaeckel, who announced her intention to enroll at UF in 2007, rather than defer until 2008, in July.

An athletic opposite hitter with excellent blocking skills, PrepVolleyball.com ranked Bledsoe as the #26 high school player in the nation in 2006. She earned first-team All-America honors from both Volleyball Magazine and PrepVolleyball.com as a senior, while also garnering inclusion on Volleyball Magazine’s Fab 50 list. After leading Mira Costa to its third-consecutive state title in 2006, Bledsoe was also named a first-team All-California Interscholastic Federation Southern Section Division I pick. She was a member of the U.S. Junior National A2 Team in 2006, and guided her club team to a first-place finish in the 18 Open division at the 2006 U.S. Junior Olympics en route to collecting all-tournament team honors.

Fleming earned All-America honors from PrepVolleyball.com and the AVCA in 2006 after captaining Lake Highland Prep to the most recent of its three-straight Class 3A state crowns. Her play as a senior also resulted in All-Central Florida honors from the Orlando Sentinel, while the Florida Sportswriters Association awarded her all-state accolades each year from 2004-06. At the end of her senior year, Fleming, a multi-talented athlete who also captured three All-America honors in cheerleading, was named Lake Highland Prep Female Athlete of the Year.

Jaeckel, a member of the 2007 U.S. Junior National A2 Team that represented the country at the European Global Challenge, was also the recipient of PrepVolleyball.com All-America honors as a senior in 2006. She was named Class 5A Player of the Year by both the Denver Post and the Rocky Mountain News following her final prep campaign, while also earning the last of her three-consecutive all-state selections from both publications. An AAU All-American in both 2005 and 2006, Jaeckel was named a Volleyball Magazine top-79 Sophomore in 2004 and a Top-50 Junior in 2005. Her actions both on and off the court earned her the Heritage High School Distinguished Scholar-Athlete Award in 2007.

PrepVolleyball.com’s 13th-ranked player in 2006, Rivers was Florida’s Gatorade Player of the Year as a senior. In addition to receiving second-team All-America honors and a spot on the Fab 50 list from Volleyball Magazine in 2006, Rivers was a three-time PrepVolleyball.com All-American. While leading Winter Park to three-straight Class 6A state titles from 2004-06, she collected three Orlando Sentinel Central Florida Player of the Year awards, three FSWA first-team all-state nods, three first-team All-Orange County selections, two Class 6A Player of the Year accolades and a runner-up showing in the race for 2005 Florida Miss Volleyball. She was named MVP of the 2006 USA High Performance Championships while playing for the U.S. Junior National A2 Team, and also owns appearances with the 2005 U.S. Junior National Team and the 2004 Junior National A2 squad. Rivers was also named an AAU All-American in both 2003 and 2004.