Volleyball: Women's
Penn State women's volleyball team ranked No. 5
The Penn State women's volleyball team dropped to No. 5 in the AVCA Coaches Poll today after losing two matches to Stanford and Florida over the weekend. With the exception of their victory over USC (now No. 13 in the nation after losing to UCLA last weekend and being upset by UCF on Sept. 2), the Nittany Lions have been unable to prove they can play with the top teams in the nation. So far, they've fallen steadily from No. 1 to No. 2 and now to No. 5. Coach Russ Rose had the Lions at No. 4 in the preseason poll, so one can only wonder where he would vote them now.
This weekend, the Lions play all unranked teams at home: Long Island, Florida Gulf Coast and Rutgers. These are teams the Lions should beat. If they don't, their No. 5 will quickly become a number with two digits. Big Ten play begins the following weekend, and ideally, the Lions would like to have solved most of their early season problems by then.
Here are the current rankings plus a quick look at the some of this week's marquee matchups in NCAA women's volleyball.
1. California (51)
2. Stanford (8)
3. Illinois
4. Washington (1)
5. Penn State
6. UCLA
7. Florida
8. Texas
9. Minnesota
10. Nebraska
11. Hawaii
12. Iowa State
13. USC
14. Purdue
15. Northern Iowa
16. Oregon
17. San Diego
18. Michigan
19. Colorado State
20. Miami (FL)
21. Pepperdine
22. Oklahoma
23. Duke
24. Long Beach State
25. Ohio State
Marquee Matchups
No. 2 Stanford vs. No. 1 California
No. 13 USC vs. No. 4 Washington
No. 6 UCLA vs. No. 4 Washington
No. 12 Iowa State vs. No. 10 Nebraska
No. 21 Pepperdine vs. No. 12 Hawaii