Monday, November 18, 2013

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





Photos courtesy Shutter Geeks Photography

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