The high school volleyball season is back, and from the looks of it, this could be a very competitive year in the Central Section.

In the preseason BVarsity section top 15, defending Division I champion Liberty holds on to the top spot, but there are a lot of teams coming for the Patriots.

Liberty is led by junior Elise Ferriera, who will play more this season at setter, her natural position and the one she will play in college (she's verbally committed to Oregon).

Her position move leaves opportunity for a big offensive seasons for Lauryn Burt and Lanie Camarillo, a senior transfer from Frontier.

Add in four-year varsity player Liana Caroccio at libero and Kaitlan Tucker at the net, and the Patriots are the early favorite to repeat as D-I champions.

Clovis, which lost to Liberty in the section semifinals last year is No. 2, and Clovis West, last year's runner-up, checks in at No. 3.

The Cougars graduated Taylen Ballard, now at BYU, but return junior Jasmine Heu at setter and enough varsity experience to be Libertys biggest competition early on.

In fact, the Tri-River Athletic Conference, the only all-D-I league in the section other than the Southwest Yosemite League, may be as deep as it has been in some time.

No. 4 Clovis-Buchanan could very well leap over Clovis and Clovis West with a good showing at the Clovis Invitational on Sept. 1-2.

The Bears return three of the teams top four hitters from a team that went 28-9 a year ago, plus one of the best defenses in the section and junior Mikayla Weiss, who averaged 8.9 assists per set last fall.

Locally, Garces returns its entire roster from last seasons D-II championship team except Hannah Merjil, who is playing for Cal State Northridge.

The Rams, who are ranked fifth, moved up to D-I and have one of the section's best outside hitting combinations in junior Perri Starkey and Lailah Green to go with junior Allison Dees in the middle.

In D-II, Tehachapi made an early season statement with a home sweep of Bakersfield Christian on Tuesday. BCHS also is in D-II after winning section titles each of the last four years in D-IV and D-III.

Tulare-Mission Oak lost in the D-III finals a year ago to BCHS and looks to be the favorite in the division ahead of Oakhurst-Yosemite and Tollhouse-Sierra.

Link:

Preseason BVarsity Central Section Volleyball Top 15: Liberty back at top, plenty of competition to begin the season - The Bakersfield Californian