I mentioned this in my Power 10 rankings, but Week 9 of college volleyball was a good one. We had so many ranked matchups — a lot in the Big Ten and the highest-ranked ACC matchup in history between Louisville and Pitt. The latest AVCA poll was released on Oct. 25 with some notable changes. Pitt stayed at No. 4 after falling just a few swings short of Louisville on Sunday. Nebraska jumped up from No. 9 to No. 6 after taking down then-No. 7 Purdue, and Purdue dropped out of the top 10.
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Here is the full AVCA top 25 poll:
|
RANK |
TEAM |
POINTS |
RECORD |
PREVIOUS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Texas (61) | 1,597 | 17-0 | 1 |
| 2 | Louisville (3) | 1,539 | 20-0 | 2 |
| 3 | Wisconsin | 1,471 | 17-1 | 3 |
| 4 | Pittsburgh | 1,364 | 18-2 | 4 |
| 5 | Kentucky | 1,321 | 15-3 | 5 |
| 6 | Nebraska | 1,239 | 16-3 | 9 |
| 7 | BYU | 1,214 | 19-1 | 8 |
| 8 | Washington | 1,115 | 15-3 | 10 |
| 9 | Ohio State | 1,071 | 16-4 | 6 |
| 10 | Baylor | 1,010 | 13-4 | 11 |
| 11 | Minnesota | 947 | 12-6 | 12 |
| 12 | Purdue | 909 | 14-5 | 7 |
| 13 | Penn State | 852 | 14-6 | 14 |
| 14 | Georgia Tech | 770 | 17-3 | 13 |
| 15 | Stanford | 706 | 12-6 | 15 |
| 16 | UCLA | 688 | 15-3 | 17 |
| 17 | Oregon | 589 | 15-5 | 16 |
| 18 | Western Kentucky | 483 | 20-1 | 19 |
| 19 | Utah | 426 | 13-6 | 18 |
| 20 | San Diego | 323 | 14-4 | 21 |
| 21 | Tennessee | 292 | 16-4 | 20 |
| 22 | Washington State | 261 | 12-7 | 22 |
| 23 | Florida | 207 | 13-6 | 23 |
| 24 | Creighton | 186 | 20-3 | 24 |
| 25 | Pepperdine | 60 | 15-4 | 25 |
Top five remains the same
The top five remain the same this week, despite the highly anticipated matchup between Pitt and Louisville. Louisville took down Pittsburgh in a five-set thriller that had us all on the edge of our seats. The match went to a decisive fifth set, one filled with ties, lead changes, momentum shifts, and everything you can imagine. Claire Chaussee led the Cards with 17 kills on .483 hitting, Anna DeBeer totaled 17 kills as well, Anna Stevenson posted 13 kills, Amaya Tillman added 12 kills and EIGHT total blocks on the match. Tori Dilfer posted 57 assists on the match — this was a total team effort for a well-rounded team. For Pittsburgh, Leketor Member-Meneh led with 18 kills on .389 hitting, Chinaza Ndee added 16 kills on .303 hitting and Kayla Lund posted 14 kills on .407 hitting. Despite the loss, the Panthers gave the Cards all they could handle. So, it makes sense that they stay at No. 4 in this week's poll.
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Wisconsin stayed pat at No. 3 after they had a great week with two wins over ranked Ohio State and Penn State. Kentucky remains at No. 5 despite getting pushed to five on back-to-back matches by Arkansas. They fought off an Arkansas match-point to win it in the second matchup.
Top 10 movement
Nebraska jumped up a few spots from No. 9 to No. 6 this week after they won their 10th consecutive match and took down Purdue in four sets. Purdue notched two losses on the weekend to Michigan State and then Nebraska, so they dropped from No. 7 to No. 12 — out of the top 10. In the Huskers' win, Madi Kubik led with 15 kills, Kayla Caffey had a career-high 14 kills on .619 hitting with two blocks, and Lauren Stivrins had 14 more kills on .393 hitting with a team-leading five stops.
Ohio State dropped from No. 6 to No. 9 after falling to Wisconsin and Minnesota over the weekend. The two back-to-back losses knocked them out of our NCAA.com Power 10 rankings, but they remain in the AVCA top 10.
Baylor also re-entered the top 10 this week after winning its sixth consecutive matchup. They will face the No. 1 Longhorns on Nov. 5 and 6th.
Elsewhere in the poll, no team moved more than one spot.
