NCAA | Washington volleyball’s next two opponents impress rankings and RPI

Huskies remain high in ratings, but Stanford and Cal not that far behind

• next: #3 Washington @ #5 Stanford | November 20 | 7:30PM | Pac-12 Networks

With four Pac-12 matches remaining, the road could still be rocky for Washington. Ranked #3 in both this week’s AVCA coaches’ poll and the NCAA’s RPI index, UW faces Stanford (#5 AVCA, #8 RPI) on Wednesday, then Cal (#23 AVCA, #28 RPI) on Friday. Both matches are in the Bay Area.

 

For the fourth time this season, Washington's Krista Vansant was named Pac-12 Player of the Week, three times (including this week) for Offense, and once for defense.
-photo by Shutter Geeks Photography

The biggest news of the week was former #5 USC’s wet weekend in Washington, losing to both #3 UW and unranked WSU. #4 Missouri knocked #7 Florida off its semi-permanent SEC perch with a sweep in Tallahassee—the first time Florida has ever been swept at home by an SEC opponent. #11 Minnesota has five Big Ten losses—twice to #2 Penn State, including this weekend, twice to #6 Nebraska, and once to #15 Wisconsin, a team they’ll face again in two weeks.

AVCA voters still love the Big Ten. #25 Purdue (16-11, 7-9) lost TWICE, to unranked Northwestern (16-12, 8-8) and to #20 Illinois (14-12, 10-6), but remained in Top 25. #17 Michigan State has lost 7 of its last 11, while #18 Michigan has dropped 5 of 9, but both earn lots of votes, even as their RPIs continue to drop.

Unranked Central Arkansas enters the Southland Conference Tournament (yes, tournaments are already starting!) on a 19-match win streak, going a perfect 18-0 in league play. The Sugar Bears own a victory over #22 Kansas (RPI #11); their only losses this season were to Arizona (RPI #20), #2 Penn State (RPI #2) and Marquette (RPI #13).

And congratulations to UT-San Antonio. The Roadrunners (21-7) defeated Tulsa 3-0 to win the Conference USA regular season title Sunday. UTSA has two assistant coaches with UW connections: former All-American Sanja Tomasevic and former UW assistant Pat Stangle.

This week’s AVCA poll and RPI, with Volleyblog Seattle’s ballot in the Volleyball Magazine media poll:

WEEK THIRTEEN

AVCA Coaches		RPI	School (First Place AVCA votes)	Volleyblog Seattle
This Week	Last Week
1	1	1	Texas (39)	3
2	2	2	Penn St (16)	2
3	3	3	Washington (5)	1
4	7	5	Missouri	5
5	6	8	Stanford	4
6	9	6	Nebraska	6
7	5	4	Florida	10
8	4	7	Southern Cal	8
9	8	19	San Diego	7
10	10	18	Colorado St	9
11	11	14	Minnesota	11
12	12	10	Hawai’i	13
13	13	16	Duke	12
14	15	23	North Carolina	15
15	14	15	Wisconsin	NR
16	17	9	Kentucky	17
17	16	26	Michigan St	NR
18	19	27	Michigan	NR
19	22	24	Florida St	16
20	25	17	Illinois	NR
21	24	32	BYU	14
22	23	11	Kansas	20
23	20	28	California	NR
24	NR	21	Iowa St	NR
25	18	41	Purdue	NR
NR	NR	12	Creighton	NR
NR	NR	13	Marquette	NR
NR	NR	20	Arizona	NR
NR	NR	22	Oklahoma	NR
NR	NR	25	Utah	NR
NR	NR	29	Oregon	NR
NR	NR	30	Louisville	NR
NR	21	38	Cal St Northridge	19
NR	NR	56	Central Arkansas	18

Others Receiving Votes and appearing on two or more AVCA ballots: Cal State Northridge; Marquette; Oregon; Ohio; Western Kentucky; Arizona; Northwestern; St. Mary's (CA); UC Santa Barbara

see also: What we learned from Washington volleyball’s win over USC

---

Photos courtesy Shutter Geeks Photography