University of Minnesota Athletics
Volleyball Remains at No. 2 in USA Today/AVCA Poll
10/18/2004 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Washington was the No. 1 team for a third week in a row, tying Minnesota's three weeks at No. 1 (Sept. 13-27) for the most weeks at No. 1 by any team this season. USC was No. 1 for the first two weeks of the season, while Washington has held the spot the last three weeks.
It marked the sixth straight week that Minnesota has occupied one of the three spots in the poll. The Golden Gophers are the only team in the nation to have remained in the top five for the entire season.
Minnesota has been ranked in the top five for nine straight weeks dating back to last year's final No. 4 ranking.
The Golden Gophers swept a three-game match from Iowa on Oct. 13, and won in four games against Illinois in their first match at Williams Arena since 1993. In their match against Illinois, Minnesota set a school-record for attendance at 10,927. The 10,927 fans was also the highest attendance in the nation this year, the second-largest attendance for a Big Ten match in the conference's history and the fifth-largest attendance in NCAA history for a regular-season match that was not part of a "Midnight Madness" promotion.
Since last year's final poll, Minnesota has occupied every spot in the top five. The Golden Gophers finished No. 4 in last year's final poll. Minnesota started out at No. 5 in the first two weeks of the polls this season, and moved to No. 1 from Sept. 13-27. Last week, the Golden Gophers held the No. 3 ranking, and the last two weeks they have been No. 2.
Minnesota joins three other Big Ten teams in the Top-25 this week. Joining the Golden Gophers in the top 10 are No. 5 Penn State and No. 7 Ohio State. Illinois is also ranked No. 24. The Big Ten is the only conference in the nation to have two teams in the top five and three teams in the top 10.
Minnesota will head to Indiana to play the Hoosiers on Friday, Oct. 22 at 7 p.m. The Golden Gophers will also travel to Purdue to take on the Boilermakers on Oct. 23 at 7 p.m.
Rank School (First-Place Votes) Total Points * 2004 Record Last Wk 1 Washington (63) 1,623 15-0 1 2 Minnesota 1,508 18-2 2 3 Hawai'i (2) 1,480 16-0 3 4 Nebraska 1,429 15-1 4 5 Penn State 1,359 16-1 5 6 Southern California 1,304 10-3 6 7 Ohio State 1,285 18-0 8 8 Florida 1,145 16-2 10 9 Colorado State 989 14-2 7 10 Texas 941 16-1 9 11 Stanford 939 14-4 12 12 UCLA 928 11-5 11 13 California 808 10-6 13 14 Utah 733 15-2 18 15 Saint Mary's (Calif.) 607 16-2 14 16 Texas A&M 595 10-5 20 17 Tennessee 579 18-1 17 18 Kansas State 561 12-6 16 19 Santa Clara 449 12-4 15 20 UC Santa Barbara 436 12-3 19 21 Louisville 324 16-2 21 22 San Diego 284 12-4 25 23 Arizona 229 11-7 22 24 Illinois 161 13-4 23 25 Florida A&M 159 16-2 24 Others receiving points and listed on two or more ballots: Rice 78, Ohio 60, Missouri 33, Georgia Tech 29, Loyola Marymount 20, Long Beach State 19, Wichita State 11, Pacific 9, UC Irvine 6.
