Hawaii was ranked No. 17 in Monday’s AVCA Coaches Top 25 preseason volleyball poll, one place higher than the Rainbow Wahine’s ranking at the end of last season.

Hawaii,  with 481 points, was the only Big West team in the Top 25 but three other conference teams received votes. UC Santa Barbara was 34th with 26 points, Cal State Northridge 37th with 19 points and Long Beach State 38th with 11 points 

Defending national champion Penn State was selected No. 1, garnering 32 first-place votes. Texas, the 2012 champion, was No. 2, with 11 votes, followed by Stanford (7), Washington and USC (2). Rounding out the top 10 were national runner-up Wisconsin (8), Nebraska, Purdue, BYU and Florida.

Hawaii opens the season Aug. 29 with Ohio in the Chevron Invitational.