NCAA Women’s Division 1 Volleyball Update

Published on September 20, 2010 by sprouticus · No Comments

The top four teams are staying strong, but a few ranked teams had some serious stumbles this week.

Top Four Teams

After it’s loss to Stanford , No. 2 Penn State has rebounded with a vengeance, keeping its opponents in single digits during many of its recent games. In fact they pounded the opposition (St. John’s, Princeton and George Washington) by more than 12 points in 8 out of 9 games.

Elsewhere No. 1 Stanford needed four games to take care of un-ranked St. Mary’s, while No. 3 Florida continued its sweep of top-25 teams by defeated No. 18 Tennessee on Sunday. Their only loss this season came against then-No. 1 Penn State, and they will continue their difficult early season lineup when they take on No. 13 Florida State this Wednesday.

No. 4-ranked Nebraska remains a force to be reckoned with, taking down No. 11 Iowa State and the un-ranked Colorado University Buffaloes this past week.

The Rest of the Pack

Meanwhile last week’s No. 5 team, the Illinois Illini let a 2-0 lead against Cincinnati slip through hands, ultimately losing to the previously-unranked team 2-3. With 18 service errors for the match, it looks like the Illini have no one to blame but themselves for their slide into the No. 9 spot this week.

Hawaii, USC, Washington and California all benefited from Illinois’ fall, with each school climbing a couple spots in the ranks.

Also in the “how the mighty have fallen” category is last year’s NCAA Division 1 runner-up Texas, who fell from No. 8 to No. 12 this week after a loss to un-ranked Texas A&M. Another big drop came from Colorado State when the Rams (last week’s No. 14 team) dropped a 5-game match to then-No. 24 Long Beach State.

You can check out the full poll here. Photo courtesy of Flickr.