Ducks drop to 4th in Coaches Poll
EUGENE – Sporting its seventh top-five ranking this season, the University of Oregon volleyball team (20-3, 11-3) was tabbed fourth in Monday’s 11th AVCA Coaches Poll of the season.
Coming off a No. 2 ranking last week, UO dropped two positions from its all-time high after it dropped home matches to No. 1 Stanford (3-0) and California (3-2) in front of the second- and 20th-biggest crowds in school history (5,007 / 2,011).
UO was one of five Pac-12 schools spotted in the top eight overall Monday with No. 1 Stanford, No. 5 Washington, No. 6 UCLA and No. 8 USC.
Among those five teams, Stanford, remained the same this week; Washington climbed three spots; UCLA fell one position; and Oregon and USC both dropped two spots.
One other Duck foe stood top 25 – No. 15 Ohio State – and California, Kentucky, Oregon State and St. Mary’s have picked up votes in current or previous editions.
For comparison’s sake, last week’s Pac-12 rankings follow: No. 1 Stanford, No. 5 UCLA, No. 6 USC and No. 8 Washington.
Overall during head coach Jim Moore’s eight-year tenure, Oregon has now been ranked top 25 for 86 editions (2012-12; 2011-14; ’10-13; ’09-16; ’08-16; ’07-13; ’06-2), including 50 in the top 15, and all 23 of the team’s ever top-10 honors. UO has also scored five, top-three rankings the past seven weeks with its No. 2 rankings in the fifth, sixth and 10th editions of the year, and third-place pollings in the eighth and ninth installments.
Among other poll news:
- No. 1 Stanford repeated as the top team in the nation for the second straight week after it also won 3-0 at Oregon State.
- No. 2 Penn State improved one position after its 3-0 wins at home vs. No. 10 Minnesota and Wisconsin.
- No. 3 Texas jumped four positions after it won 3-0 at both TCU and at then-No. 16 Kansas State.
- The former No. 4 – Nebraska – dropped to No. 9 after it lost 3-2 at both Michigan and Michigan State.
- No. 5 Washington won 3-0 at home vs. Colorado and came back from an 0-2 deficit vs. Utah to win in five sets in Seattle.
- No. 6 UCLA lost 3-0 at Arizona and won 3-1 at Arizona State.
- No. 8 USC also split in the desert with a 3-1 win at Arizona and 3-0 loss at ASU.
The complete poll follows at the bottom of this article, and is also available at the AVCA website at the http://www.avca.org/divisions/division-one-women/polls/ URL address.
With three weeks of the regular season play, UO remains at home to welcome its desert rivals this weekend. UO first faces Arizona State (16-11, 5-9) on Friday, Nov. 9 at 7 p.m., then takes on Arizona (13-12, 5-9) on Saturday, Nov. 10 at 8 p.m.
Against the Sun Devils, fans that wear a KIDSPORTS t-shirt will get discounted G.A. tickets ($1 youth; $5 adults). Against the Wildcats, the BI-MART 2-for-1 Night promotion means that fans that show a BI-MART card at the door will get two G.A. tickets for the price of one.
Duck fans can also watch both of those matches streamed live on the Pac-12 website at the www.pac-12.com/live/goducks.aspx URL address.
AVCA Division I Coaches Top 25 Poll
Week #11: November 5, 2012
Rank School (1st-Place Votes) Points W-L Prev.
*1 Stanford (60) 1500 22-2 1
2 Penn State 1436 23-2 3
3 Texas 1343 20-3 7
>4 Oregon 1272 20-3 2
5 Washington 1195 19-4 8
*6 UCLA 1163 18-5 5
7 Hawai’i 1143 21-2 9
*8 USC 1098 22-4 6
9 Nebraska 1050 18-5 4
10 Minnesota 1038 20-5 10
11 Louisville 890 23-3 12
12 Dayton 746 22-4 14
13 Florida State 718 22-3 11
14 BYU 676 23-2 17
*15 Ohio State 631 18-8 15
16 Florida 617 19-4 13
17 Kansas State 547 20-4 16
18 Western Kentucky 463 28-3 19
19 San Diego 423 18-5 18
20 Iowa State 363 15-7 21
21 Purdue 313 18-7 22
22 North Carolina 187 21-4 NR
23 Kansas 172 20-5 20
24 Pepperdine 159 18-8 24
25 Creighton 80 22-3 NR
Others Receiving Votes (and appearing on two or more ballots): *Kentucky 63; Miami (FL) 57; Marquette 49; *St. Mary’s (CA) 43; Tennessee 38; Texas A&M 7
Three schools were listed on only one ballot for a total of 19 combined points.
Dropped Out: Miami (FL) 23; St. Mary’s (CA) 25
Next poll: November 12, 2012
