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 

see also: Washington's Krista Vansant repeats as Player of the Week

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Photos courtesy Shutter Geeks Photography