After a chaotic week 3 filled with upsets, there’s a new No. 1 in the AVCA poll and two new teams in the Top 5.
BYU, one of three undefeated teams among the Top 10, climbed two spot from No. 3 to No. 1 after a 3-0 weekend at the Marquette Invitational. The Cougars swept No. 10 USC and topped No. 25 Marquette in four sets in the finale to stay perfect at 8-0.
New week,
New rankings,
Same team😏☝️#BYUWVB #GoCougs pic.twitter.com/CGIZbCzmcb
— BYU Women’s Volleyball (@BYUwvolleyball) September 10, 2018
BYU earned 54 of the 64 first place votes, while No. 2 Stanford picked up the other 10. The Cardinal also moved up two spot this week from No. 4 after a solid outing including a sweep of No. 5 Penn State and then No. 1 Minnesota in four at the Big Ten/Pac-12 Challenge.
Other Major Movements:
- Texas vaulted into the Top 5, jumping from No. 6 to No. 3 with wins over Texas State and No. 16 Kentucky.
- Nebraska rejoined the Top 5 at No. 4, up three spots from No. 7 with a five-set road win over No. 14 Creighton on Thursday and a sweep of Iowa State on Sunday. After two coaches left Nebraska off their ballots last week, both have included the Huskers this week: one ranking them at No. 6 and the other at No. 8. The points earned from those two rankings were enough to bump the Huskers an extra spot ahead of Penn State in the Week 3 rankings.
- Despite its loss to Stanford, Penn State remained at No. 5, closing out the weekend with a win over then-No. 18 Oregon.
- Last week’s No. 1 Minnesota fell to No. 7 and No. 2 Wisconsin dropped to No. 6. The Golden Gophers lost to both Stanford and Oregon at the Big Ten/Pac-12 Challenge, while the Badgers fell to then No. 15 Baylor.
- The biggest climbers of the week were Oregon, which jumped six spots from 18 to 12, and Cal Poly, which vaulted eight places from No. 22 to 14.
- Other big movers included Illinois (up to No. 8 from No. 11), Pittsburgh (up to No. 9 from No. 13), Creighton (up to No. 10 to No. 14), Purdue (up to No. 15 from No. 19), and Marquette (up to No. 21 from No. 25).
- Alabama made its way into the rankings at No. 25 after topping Marshall, Georgia Tech and Northern Illinois to move to 9-0. The poll position marked the first ever national ranking for the Crimson Tide in program history.
HISTORY! 👏🙌🏐
For the first time in program history, Alabama is ranked in the @AVCAVolleyball top 25, coming in at No. 25 in this week's poll
📰: https://t.co/zZ7DrsPGCX#RollTide pic.twitter.com/OVrWFAsPsl
— Alabama Volleyball (@AlabamaVBall) September 10, 2018
Teams on the descent were Florida, USC, UCLA and San Diego. The Gators fell three spots from eight to 11 with a five-set loss to Northern Arizona. The Trojans dropped from 10 into a tie for 16th after falling to BYU and Marquette before rebounding with a five-set win over Syracuse to close out the Marquette Invitational. The Bruins dropped four-set road matches to Cal Poly on Thursday and Friday. The Toreros plummeted seven spots, from 16 to 23 after splitting matches with Tennessee.
| Rank | School (First-Place Votes) | Total Points Adjusted | 2018 Record | Previous Week |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | BYU (54) | 1590 | 8-0 | 3 |
| 2 | Stanford (10) | 1543 | 6-1 | 4 |
| 3 | Texas | 1410 | 5-1 | 6 |
| 4 | Nebraska | 1369 | 6-1 | 7 |
| 5 | Penn State | 1345 | 6-1 | 5 |
| 6 | Wisconsin | 1247 | 5-1 | 2 |
| 7 | Minnesota | 1229 | 5-2 | 1 |
| 8 | Illinois | 1169 | 8-0 | 11 |
| 9 | Pittsburgh | 1058 | 9-0 | 13 |
| 10 | Creighton | 867 | 6-3 | 14 |
| 11 | Florida | 826 | 5-3 | 8 |
| 12 | Oregon | 817 | 5-3 | 18 |
| 13 | Washington | 762 | 5-2 | 12 |
| 14 | Cal Poly | 697 | 7-1 | 22 |
| 15 | Purdue | 667 | 8-0 | 19 |
| T-16 | Southern California | 641 | 6-3 | 10 |
| T-16 | UCLA | 641 | 4-2 | 9 |
| 18 | Baylor | 592 | 6-3 | 15 |
| 19 | Michigan | 539 | 9-0 | 20 |
| 20 | Kentucky | 455 | 4-4 | 16 |
| 21 | Marquette | 427 | 7-2 | 25 |
| 22 | Washington State | 332 | 7-0 | 23 |
| 23 | San Diego | 207 | 2-4 | 16 |
| 24 | Utah | 93 | 7-2 | 21 |
| 25 | Alabama | 53 | 9-0 | NR |
Others receiving votes and listed on two or more ballots: Iowa State 24; Northern Iowa 23; Georgia 22; Louisville 22; Michigan State 20; Colorado State 18; Colorado 17; Wyoming 14; Tennessee 12; Cincinnati 10; Kansas State 10; Loyola Marymount 8; Wichita State 6; Arizona 5; Oregon State 5; Portland 4
Four teams mentioned on only one ballot for a total of 10 combined points.
Dropped Out: Colorado 24
Leave a Reply