For the first time since the end of the 2020-21 season when Santa Clara raised the Women's College Cup Trophy, there is a new No. 1 team in NCAA women's soccer.
Former-No. 1 Florida State was handed its first tie and first loss of the 2021 season. The Seminoles drew with No. 7 North Carolina 2-2 in Chapel Hill and lost 1-0 to then-No. 6 Duke in Durham. FSU dropped two spots down to No. 3 with those results from the prior week.
Virginia moved up into the No. 1 spot after wins over Louisville and Miami. The Cavaliers and ’Noles will close out the ACC regular season with a head-to-head match in Tallahassee on Thursday, Oct. 28 at 7 p.m. ET.
See the full top 25 below:
| Rank | School | points | record | previous |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Virginia (26) | 839 | 15-1-1 | 2 |
| 2 | Duke (2) | 801 | 12-2-1 | 6 |
| 3 | Florida State (5) | 777 | 14-1-1 | 1 |
| 4 | Arkansas (1) | 750 | 14-2-0 | 4 |
| 5 | UCLA | 686 | 13-0-3 | 8 |
| 6 | Rutgers | 669 | 15-2-0 | 9 |
| 7 | North Carolina | 650 | 11-2-3 | 7 |
| 8 | TCU | 581 | 14-2-1 | 11 |
| 9 | Stanford | 551 | 12-3-1 | 14 |
| 10 | Southern California | 518 | 11-2-2 | 5 |
| 11 | BYU | 499 | 11-3-1 | 12 |
| 12 | Tennessee | 488 | 14-2-0 | 10 |
| 13 | Pepperdine | 434 | 13-2-1 | 3 |
| 14 | SMU | 387 | 10-2-2 | 16 |
| 15 | Xavier | 365 | 16-1-1 | 17 |
| 16 | Ole Miss | 335 | 11-3-3 | 13 |
| 17 | Michigan | 256 | 12-3-3 | NR |
| 18 | Purdue | 228 | 13-3-2 | 18 |
| 19 | Auburn | 212 | 11-4-1 | 19 |
| 20 | Texas | 178 | 9-3-5 | 21 |
| 21 | Georgetown | 169 | 11-0-6 | 20 |
| 22 | Notre Dame | 150 | 12-4-1 | 15 |
| 23 | South Florida | 127 | 10-3-2 | 22 |
| 24 | Brown | 101 | 10-3-0 | NR |
| 25 | Santa Clara | 76 | 8-5-2 | NR |
Also receiving votes: Washington State (57), Virginia Tech (54), Penn State (28), Baylor (19), Clemson (15), South Carolina (9), West Virginia (6), Houston (5), Harvard (5), Memphis (4), Saint Mary's (3), UCF (3), Oregon (3), Butler (3), Princeton (3), Wake Forest (2), UNC Wilmington (2), Hofstra (2)
The largest move in this week’s rankings came from former-No. 3 Pepperdine. The Waves dropped all the way down to No. 13 after being shut out in a 4-0 loss to Santa Clara and a 0-0 tie with Saint Mary’s.
Other big moves in the top-10 are Duke moving up from No. 6 to No. 2 after it took down FSU and UCLA jumping into the top-5 with a tie against Washington State and a win over Washington. UCLA is one of two undefeated teams remaining this year, along with No. 21 Georgetown.
There are three new teams in the rankings: No. 17 Michigan, No. 24 Brown and No. 25 Santa Clara. Penn State, Memphis and Hofstra all left the top-25 and will look to get back in as conference tournaments are right around the corner.
