With Selection Sunday just over three weeks away, the NCAA Volleyball Committee gave its first glimpse into the possible field, announcing its Top 10 rankings on Wednesday night.
“After the great feedback from last year’s top-ten ranking announcement, the DI Women’s Volleyball committee chose to continue the engagement with the volleyball community during regular-season play,” said Lisa Peterson, chair of the committee and Deputy Athletic Director/SWA at the University of Oregon. “The ranking is a chance for the committee to provide insight to fans ahead of Selection Sunday.
“There are still a number of regular season and conference tournament matches to be played. In the interim, we will continue to seek input from our Regional Advisory Committee members ahead of the discussions that we will have during selection weekend. We look forward to gathering together in a few weeks to re-evaluate the teams that will eventually compete in the 2017 DI Women’s Volleyball championship tournament.”
The rankings are as follows (records shown through Nov. 1):
10 – Wisconsin (15-6, 6-6 Big 10)
9 – Oregon (14-6, 7-5 Pac-12)
8 – Washington (18-5, 8-4 Pac-12)
7 – Texas (18-2, 10-0 Big 12)
6 – Florida (19-1, 11-1 SEC)
5 -Kentucky (19-3, 10-1 SEC)
4 – Stanford (19-2, 12-0 Pac-12)
3 – Minnesota (21-2, 10-2 Big Ten)
2 – Nebraska (18-4, 11-1 Big Ten)
1 – Penn State (22-1, 12-1 Big Ten)
The committee stated that the Top 10 was based on strength of schedule, RPI, head to head competition, results vs. common opponents, significant wins and losses and locations of contests. That criteria also will be used to select the 64-team championship field.
The 10 teams also make up the latest RPI Top 10 although the order is slightly different. The RPI has been the most important factor to the committee in the selection process over the last several years. RPI is comprised of a team’s winning percentage (25%), its opponents’ winning percentage (50%) and the winning percentage of those opponents’ opponents (25%).
Top ranked Penn State won an important match in the Big Ten title race on Wednesday night, topping No. 10 Michigan State in four sets on the road to move to 12-1 atop the league.
Florida took a half a game lead on Kentucky in the SEC standings, moving to 12-1 and evening the season series with the Wildcats with a road sweep.
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