Softball Rankings: Week 9
4/6/2010 12:00:00 AM | Softball
April 6, 2010
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - The Alabama softball team checked in ranked No.7 in the ESPN.com/USA Softball Collegiate Top 25 Poll and No. 6 in the USA Today/NFCA Top 25 Poll. The Crimson Tide finished the week a perfect 3-0 after earning a sweep over in-state conference rival Auburn this past weekend.
The Huskies, who started their reign on June 9, remain top ranked in the ESPN.com/USA Softball poll despite dropping the first game of conference play Thursday.
No. 4 UCLA (27-6, 1-2 Pac-10) handed 2009 USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year Danielle Lawrie her first loss of the season in the teams' opening game of Pac-10 action. After the 1-0 loss, the Huskies (30-3, 2-1 Pac-10) regrouped for 3-1 and 7-2 victories over UCLA.
Michigan (26-5, 3-0 Big Ten) took one first-place vote after a sweep of Wisconsin but it was not enough to move the Wolverines out of the third spot. Arizona (30-4, 2-1 Pac-10) holds at No. 2 despite being run-ruled by No. 10 Arizona State (32-6, 1-2 Pac-10) for the first time in school history Friday. The Wildcats returned the favorite with a 14-2 run-rule win Saturday.
Rounding out the top five is Florida (27-4, 9-2 SEC), which swept now-No. 14 LSU (29-7, 8-3 SEC) over the weekend to improve from last week's No. 9 spot. Before Washington took over the top spot following the program's first championship at the Women's College World Series, Florida had held the No. 1 spot for 10 consecutive weeks. The Gators lost the top spot when they finished second to the Huskies in Oklahoma City.
Other rankings include: Georgia Tech (32-5, 8-1 ACC) at No. 6; Alabama (27-9, 10-4 SEC) at No. 7; and Stanford (27-5, 2-1 Pac-10) at No. 9. Missouri (25-6, 1-3 Big 12) faced one of the biggest drops of the week, settling into the No. 8 position after a weekend sweep from now-No. 11 Oklahoma State (32-7, 4-0 Big 12). Georgia also dropped from No. 8 to No. 12 after dropping two to Arkansas.
With the first week of conference play for most teams in the books, the Washington Huskies are once again the No. 1 team in the country according to the latest USA Today/NFCA Division I Top 25 poll. The Huskies have earned the top ranking in each of nine polls released so far this season.
Michigan and Arizona were once again second and third, respectively, in the poll this week, while Florida moved up two spots from sixth to fourth. Rounding out the top five was UCLA, who came in at fifth for the fourth consecutive week.
North Carolina was the only team to fall from the rankings this week after being ranked 22nd in last week's poll. After receiving votes in five of eight previous polls this season, Hawai'i finally broke through and joined the poll as the only new team this week at No. 25.
