LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Washington enters its sixth straight week as the No. 1 team in the USA Today/NFCA Division I Top 25 Coaches Poll. The Huskies (32-2) earned 25 first-place votes and 786 points. With top-10 programs getting swept in league play and another dropping the first two games of a series, it made room for No. 8 Arizona State and No. 9 South Carolina.
RELATED: Full USA Today/NFCA Top 25 Coaches Poll
Bouncing back from a defeat last Monday at Arizona State, Washington returned to Seattle to sweep then-No. 9 Arizona (2-1, 4-3, 2-0) in a tightly contested Pac-12 series that saw the first two contests go into extra innings.
Oklahoma, who ran through Texas Tech in its Big 12 opening series, moved up to No. 2 grabbing six first-place votes and 762 points. Extending their winning streak to 19 games, the Sooners (28-2) opened the week edging CSUN, 2-1 in 11 innings. They returned home and outscored the Red Raiders, 35-1 in a three-game sweep.
WATCH: #Sooners score runs in the bottom of the fourth to match the 10th-highest run total in program history!
— Oklahoma Softball (@OU_Softball) March 25, 2018
Full highlights from the win: https://t.co/Z94XLXHg2I pic.twitter.com/7yD4vZU0As
UCLA (27-2), who picked up the final first-place vote, also improved one spot to No. 3 taking the first two games against RV Oregon State (3-2, 5-3). No. 4 Florida (26-3) jumped two positions to No. 4 after topping USF (9-0) and then-No. 8 Texas A&M (6-1, 10-0) at home.
Idle Oregon stayed at No. 5, while Georgia moved up to No. 6. Tennessee dropped from No. 2 to No. 7 after being swept by new-No. 9 South Carolina, who made the biggest jump of the week from No. 16. The Gamecocks (28-4) outscored the Lady Vols (30-4), 28-16 in Columbia.
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Arizona State catapulted from No. 12 to No. 8 and has started Pac-12 play 5-1 following a road sweep of then-No. 20 California (4-2 in 10, 3-1 in 10, 4-0). The Sun Devils (27-4) began the week with a 2-0 win over No. 1 Washington to take the series from the Huskies.
Auburn returns at No. 10 following a SEC series sweep of No. 19 Kentucky (3-1, 1-0 in 12, 6-4).
Highlights from Auburn's 6-4 win over Kentucky to sweep the series #WarEagle pic.twitter.com/1KpauJBsIT
— Auburn Softball (@AuburnSoftball) March 25, 2018
Arkansas is back in the top 25 at No. 23, while Texas State dropped out from the No. 25 position.
The 2018 USA Today/NFCA Division I Top 25 Poll is voted on by 32 NCAA Division I head coaches, one representing each conference. Records reflect games played through March 25.
