BYU Women’s Volleyball jumps to No. 3 in AVCA Poll
By Shaun Gordon
BYU Women’s Volleyball moved up to No. 3 in the AVCA Poll, a six-spot jump after knocking off No. Stanford last weekend.
When you knock of the top team in the nation, the coaches take notice.
After BYU Women’s Volleyball knocked off No. 1 Stanford last Friday, they jumped to No. 3 in the latest American Volleyball Coaches Association Poll, released on Monday. It’s a six spot jump from last week’s poll.
The Cougars received 1,424 votes, including seven first place ones. They trail only No. 1 Minnesota and No. 2 Wisconsin. Stanford dropped to No. 4 after the loss.
For BYU, it’s their highest ranking since the final poll of 2014, after the Cougars’ run to the NCAA Championship game.
It’ll be another big weekend for the Cougars this Friday and Saturday. They’ll travel to Wisconsin to play in the Marquette Invitational, facing No. 10 USC and Syracuse on Friday and taking on host No. 25 Marquette on Saturday.
If BYU can sweep the tournament, they’ll have a good chance of moving into one of the top two spots.
They’ll take on another ranked opponent next week, when they host No. 21 Utah in a Deseret First Duel match on September 13th.
After the match with the Utes and a quick trip to Ogden to take on Weber State, BYU will head into West Coast Conference play.
The only WCC team besides BYU to find themselves in this weeks poll is San Diego, who sits at No. 19. The Toreros are just 1-3, but they’ve faced four ranked teams. They lost two games at No. 17 Washington and a home match against No. 10 UCLA, but knocked off No. 12 Baylor at home.
With five more matches scheduled against ranked opponents, the Cougars will be able to build a strong RPI.
And if they win most of those matches, they’ll stay toward the top of the rankings heading into the NCAA Tournament.