The terms “war, battle, dogfight, fighting and clawing” conjure up images of destruction and possible death, not college volleyball.

For several coaches in the MAC, however, these are the adjectives of choice for what each conference game will be this season.

Six matches into conference play for each team, this terminology isn’t far-fetched. Of the MAC’s 36 conference matchups thus far, 11 have gone to five sets, which is three more than last year at this time.

It’s these same coaches, however, who predicted which teams will end up on the top of the rankings before the season began.

Maybe it was a tough choice because they knew the MAC would be tough, or maybe they selected solely on last year’s results. Either way, the preseason rankings have by-and-large not panned out.

It seems someone forgot to tell Eastern Michigan and Akron players they are supposed to not show up to games and thereby lose, dropping them to the bottom of their divisions. At present, however, Eastern Michigan (17-6 overall, 4-2 MAC) sits behind NIU for the lead in the West and Akron (13-5, 5-1) is on the summit in the East.

Meanwhile, the top two teams in preseason rankings have fallen short, especially Central Michigan which was chosen to be the MAC regular season champion. The Chippewas (7-11, 1-5) have dropped five of six in conference, even with the return of two All-MAC selections in outside hitter Lauren Krupsky and middle blocker Kaitlyn Schultz.

In addition to winning the East, coaches predicted Ohio would win the MAC Tournament. If this is going to come to fruition, Ohio (13-5, 4-2) must not fall to teams under .500, as it did with Miami (OH) (7-12, 2-4) in its last match, and it must cool the hot streak of Akron when the teams face off again in November.

The Huskies(19-2, 5-1) are predicted to finish third in the West, but have thus far shown that preseason rankings have little bearing on the actual play in conference. Presumably, it was unknown how freshman outside hitter Lauren Wicinski was going to perform in her first season. She currently leads the MAC, however, in aces, points and kills. In the nation she ranks fifth, sixth and eighth in those same categories out of 250 players. Her performance, along with the contributions of her teammates, has propelled the Huskies to the top.

Before conference began, NIU head coach Ray Gooden said the rankings are unimportant, which makes one wonder why even bother voting on them.

“We don’t [invest in preseason rankings] because it really doesn’t matter,” Gooden said. “Every team in the MAC had their path preparing themselves.”

The preparation will be put to the ultimate test this Friday when the tops of East and West face off for the best record in the conference. Akron will take on the Huskies at 7 p.m. on Victor E. Court.