Monday, September 30, 2013

NCAA | Washington volleyball rises to #1 in national coaches' poll

Huskies top AVCA poll for the first time since 2005

[9/30/13: CORRECTIONS: (1) Michigan State defeated Ohio State, not vice versa; (2) DePaul is no longer undefeated, leaving just four undefeated teams]

For the first time since it won the 2005 National Championship, the Washington Huskies are ranked number one in the AVCA weekly poll of 60 (out of 328) Division 1 coaches. This marks the ninth week all-time that the Huskies have been the top-ranked team, the tenth-most weeks at #1 of any team in D1.
Washington Huskies are ranked #1
-photo by Shutter Geeks Photography

Washington received 38 first-place votes, moving ahead of last week’s top team, Penn State, which lost 3-2 at home to Michigan State. After defeating #21 Oregon 3-1 in Eugene Friday night, UW is one of only 4 undefeated (out of 328) Division 1 teams (Colorado State, North Carolina and Missouri are the others.)

The big winner this week was Michigan State, which swept both Penn State and previously undefeated Ohio State. Stanford continues to climb back after a so-so win against Cal and a big victory against Arizona State. Ranked teams that fell hard were UCLA (losses to USC and Colorado), Michigan (losses to Penn State and Ohio State) and San Diego (loss at home to St. Mary’s.) Voters who held on too long to Purdue and Illinois are finally giving Wisconsin the attention it has earned.

The Huskies were picked #5 in the August preseason poll, trailing only defending national champion Texas, Penn State, Stanford and USC. After two weeks of preseason, they dropped to #6, then rose to #3, then #2 and #1 as others above them suffered defeats.

This week’s AVCA poll:

WEEK SIX
AVCA Coaches
School
(First Place votes)
Volleyblog
Seattle
This Week
Last Week
1
2
Washington (38)
1
2
4
Southern California (12)
2
3
3
Florida (2)
8
4
5
Texas (2)
7
5
1
Penn St (1)
6
6
6
Hawai’i (3)
3
7
7
Stanford
9
8
9
Minnesota
4
9
15
Michigan St (2)
5
10
12
Nebraska
14
11
14
North Carolina
10
12
13
Ohio St
13
13
8
San Diego
18
14
10
Michigan
17
15
16
Arizona St
11
16
11
UCLA
16
17
19
Colorado St
15
18
17
Florida St
NR
19
18
Kentucky
NR
20
22
Ohio
20
21
21
Oregon
NR
22
23
Creighton
NR
23
NR
Wisconsin
12
24
20
Purdue
NR
25
25
Iowa St
NR
NR
NR
BYU
19

Others Receiving Votes and appearing on two or more ballots:  BYU 66; Illinois 53; Western Kentucky 45; Duke 43; St. Mary's (CA) 33; Oklahoma 25; Texas A&M 25; Kansas State 18; California 17; Missouri 10; Kansas 9; Cal State Northridge 8; Miami (FL) 8 





Photos courtesy Shutter Geeks Photography

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