NCAA | Media poll also ranks Washington volleyball #2

Volleyball Magazine media poll closely tracks AVCA coaches’ poll

NCAA | Washington volleyball jumps to #3 in national media poll

AVCA poll elevates Penn State #1 and Cinderella team San Diego #2

NCAA | Who will be/should be the #1 volleyball team this week?

The mighty have fallen … although they’ve mostly fallen to other mighties.

NCAA | Washington volleyball remains high in national polls

Huskies at #6 in coaches poll after top teams beat each other; USC #1

NCAA | Washington volleyball remains high in national polls

Huskies remain #5 in coaches poll, #6 in media poll

NCAA | How the Top 20 fared

Washington's Kelly Holford
-courtesy Shutter Geeks Photography

How the Top 20 fared, October 22-28, 2012

Several upsets this week, none of them earthshaking:

• #1 Penn State lost to #4 Nebraska (2-3)
• #4 Nebraska lost to #20 Ohio St (1-3)
• #5 Washington lost to #6 UCLA (1-3)
• #5 Washington lost to #7 USC (2-3)
• #11 Florida lost to #12 Florida St (0-3)
• #18 Kansas lost to unranked Iowa St (1-3)

Worth noting:

• #14 San Diego lost back-to-back 5-set squeakers, last week to St. Mary’s, this week to Santa Clara (13-15 in both fifth sets). In the past month, Santa Clara (17-8) has defeated Pepperdine, BYU and San Diego, all top-20 teams at the time.

NCAA | How the Top 20 fared

How the Top 20 fared, September 17-23, 2012

Crazy numbers this week:

• Number two beat number one and number four beat number three.
• Number two would have become number one, except it lost to number seven.
• Numbers ten, twelve, eighteen and twenty also lost

Washington's Jenna Orladinia
-Volleyblog Seattle photo
by Leslie Hamann

And you thought YOU worked hard:

• Seattle University has played six five-set matches this season, including the last five in a row. The Redhawks are 3-3 in five-set matches in 2012.
• #17 San Diego lost a set to San Francisco 33-35. The next night they won a set against Santa Clara 32-30.
• #10 Louisville won its first two sets against Notre Dame 25-16, 25-16 … then went on to lose the fifth set 3-15. It was only Louisville’s second loss of the season.
• #8 Hawai’i played its first road matches of the season—and its first matches in the Big West Conference. The Wahine Rainbow went 3-0 this week, but were pushed to five sets by both Cal State Northridge and Cal State Fullerton.
• Five teams fell from the ranks of the unbeaten this week, including #2 USC (0-3 to #7 Oregon), #12 Kansas State (0-3 to Oklahoma), Michigan State (2-3 to #16 Purdue); South Carolina (1-3 to Auburn then 1-3 to #20 Tennessee) and Northwestern (1-3  to Wisconsin, then 1-3 to #11 Minnesota).
• Only three undefeated teams remain (of 327 Division 1 schools): #5 Washington (11-0), #7 Oregon (11-0) and #14 BYU (14-0)

NCAA | How the Top 20 fared

How the Top 20 fared, August 24-26, 2012

It was an eventful three days …

Washington's Kelcey Dunaway
-Volleyblog Seattle photo
by Leslie Hamann

• In the first weekend’s marquee matchup, #1 UCLA built a 19-13 lead in the second set against #5 Nebraska, only to let it slip away. Playing at home, the Huskers hung on, barely, until the match was tied 13-all in the fifth set. Nebraska won the next two points and came away with the narrowest of victories.
• The Bruins were last season’s national champions; their Finals opponent, #9 Illinois, also lost … twice, to Dayton and to #11 Pepperdine. Not to be outdone, Pepperdine also lost to unheralded Dayton.
• Nebraska’s Coliseum is probably the second-toughest place for visitors to play; #3 Stanford travelled to the toughest: Honolulu. In something of a surprise, Hawai’i handled Stanford fairly easily, 3-1, in front of 7,426 Wahine Rainbow fans.
• #2 Texas swept away pesky #19 San Diego, and watched #10 Iowa State—its only serious competition in the Big 12—lose to both #14 Florida State and #16 Tennessee. Florida State also easily handled Tennessee.
• Last season, #18 Oregon stunned the volleyball world by beating #4 Penn State. This season, the Ducks overcame Ohio State in five sets.
• #17 California stumbled, losing in five sets to San Diego State.

Local athletes in NCAA D1 Tournament

Hundreds of Washington state high school girls go on to play volleyball at the next level ... well over a thousand colleges and universities compete in various divisions.

321 schools are members of the NCAA Division 1, and 64 qualified  for this season's D1 Tournament.

Here are the thirteen athletes we've identified who attended high school in Washington and are now members of tournament teams:

NAME	SCHOOL	HIGH SCHOOL	POS.	CLASS
Lauren Barfield	Washington	Newport	MB	SR
Gabby Bird-Vogel	Yale	Seattle Prep	OH	FR
Ashley Broadwell	Pepperdine	Archbishop Murphy	OH	RS SO
Anna Cesari	Washington	King’s	S	RS FR
Kelcey Dunaway	Washington	Bainbridge Island	MB	JR
Deedra Foss	Colorado State	Lakes	S	RS FR
Jane Han	San Diego	Auburn Riverside	L	RS FR
Kylin Muñoz	Washington	Monroe	OH	JR
Alexis Olgard	USC	Mead	MB	SO
Bianca Rowland	Washington	King’s	MB	SR
Stephanie Stoll	Tennessee	Issaquah	MB	RS FR
Tangerine Wiggs	Florida	Holy Names	OH	JR
Alyssa Wistrick	Middle Tenn. St.	R.A. Long	OH	SR

Kylin Munoz, Monroe HS (second from right) and Bianca Rowland, King's HS (right)
[Volleyblog Seattle photo by Leslie Hamann]

Washington ascends to #2 in coaches' weekly poll

60 Division 1 coaches cast their ballots, and Washington moves up one more step to #2 in the weekly AVCA Division 1 Coaches Top 25 Poll.

This is the third time the Huskies have reached #2; the first two were toward the end of the 2006 season, when they trailed only Nebraska. In 2004, the Huskies were ranked #1 for seven weeks; in 2005 they ascended to #1 the final week of the season when they swept the Cornhuskers for the national title.

Voters are finally giving USC some overdue respect: they’ve won eight Pac-12 matches in a row, a conference with five teams in the top seven. Washington has won seven Pac-12 matches in a row, all by 3-0 sweeps.

Two more weeks until Illinois finally travels to Nebraska, in their only Big-10 meeting of the season (Why do the 12 members of the Pac-12 play every other team home and away, but the 12 members of the Big-10 play some fellow conference members only once?)

Both Northern Iowa and San Diego have just one loss each, but it looks to me that San Diego has the tougher schedule. Midwest bias?

Finally, who’s the coach who voted UCLA #1 after suffering its second Pac-12 loss, this time to Arizona?

Rank	School (First-Place Votes)	Total Points	2011 Record	Last Week
1	Illinois (58)	1495	17-0	1
2	Washington	1369	15-1	3
3	Southern California (1)	1304	13-3	5
4	California	1295	17-2	4
5	Nebraska	1278	13-1	6
6	UCLA (1)	1209	14-3	2
7	Stanford	1146	12-3	7
8	Hawai'i	1062	15-1	9
9	Penn State	1020	11-5	8
10	Texas	933	10-4	10
11	Purdue	887	15-2	11
12	Northern Iowa	830	17-1	12
13	Florida	788	13-3	13
14	Minnesota	702	10-5	14
15	Iowa State	642	14-3	16
16	Oregon	577	12-4	15
17	San Diego	537	18-1	17
18	Tennessee	483	15-2	19
19	Pepperdine	414	11-5	20
20	Michigan	310	14-4	18
21	Florida State	285	13-4	24
22	Oklahoma	261	17-4	22
23	Miami (FL)	192	14-2	21
24	Ohio State	87	13-6	25
25	Kentucky	66	16-3	NR