Ducks spike up to No. 2

By Oregon Media Services Published: Oct 29, 2012 at 2:59 PM PDT
Ducks spike up to No. 2

EUGENE – Looking ahead to its biggest home weekend of the regular season, the No. 2 University of Oregon volleyball team (20-1, 11-1) equaled its school-record ranking for the third time in Monday’s 10th AVCA Coaches Poll of the season.

UO climbed one position in the current edition after it swept Colorado and Utah on the road last weekend, and also logged 20 wins for the fifth time under head coach Jim Moore.

Oregon was one of five Pac-12 schools spotted in the top eight overall with No. 1 Stanford, No. 5 UCLA, No. 6 USC and No. 8 Washington.

Among those five teams, Oregon, Stanford, UCLA and USC all improved one position this week, and Washington dropped three spots.

Two other Duck foes stood top 25 – No. 15 Ohio State and No. 25 St. Mary’s – and California, Kentucky and Oregon State have picked up votes in current or previous editions.

For comparison’s sake, last week’s Pac-12 rankings follow: No. 2 Stanford, No. 5 Washington, No. 6 UCLA and No. 7 USC.

Overall during head coach Jim Moore’s eight-year tenure, Oregon has now been ranked top 25 for 85 editions (2012-11; 2011-14; ’10-13; ’09-16; ’08-16; ’07-13; ’06-2), including 49 in the top 15, and all 22 of the team’s ever top-10 honors. UO has also scored five , top-three rankings since mid-September with its No. 2 rankings in the fifth and sixth editions of the year, and third-place pollings the last two weeks.

Among other poll news:
- No. 1 Stanford made its first appearance atop the poll after it beat Arizona and Arizona State at home by 3-0 and 3-1 scores.
- The former No. 1 – now No. 3 Penn State – won 3-0 at Iowa and lost 3-2 at No. 4 Nebraska.
- The Huskers held steady at No. 4 after it also lost 3-1 to then-No. 20 Ohio State at home.
- No. 5 UCLA and No. 6 USC both swept Washington State, and scored 3-1 and 3-2 home wins over then-No. 5 Washington, respectively.

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.

This weekend, UO will host its first-ever battle between the nation’s top teams against No. 1 Stanford (20-2, 12-0) at Matthew Knight Arena on Sunday, November 4, at 1 p.m. Oregon also hosts California (11-11, 5-7) on Friday, November 2 at 6 p.m.