Softball Rankings: Week 5
3/8/2011 12:00:00 AM | Softball
March 8, 2011
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - The Alabama softball team dropped a single spot in the ESPN.com/USA Softball Top 25 as it moves to No. 2 in the rankings. The Crimson Tide remained in the No. 3 spot in the USA Today/NFCA Top 25 poll. Alabama received eight first-place votes in the ESPN.com poll and one in the NFCA poll.
Led by undefeated Florida, a trio of schools from the Southeastern Conference remain at the top of the ESPN.com/USA Softball Collegiate Top 25 poll, the Amateur Softball Association (ASA) of America announced Tuesday. The Gators (14-0), receiving 11 of the first-place votes, are No. 1 for the first time this season.
As hosts of the Lipton Invitational, Florida defeated Valparaiso 13-4, Syracuse 2-0, North Dakota State 18-0 (five innings), Pacific 10-2 (six) and North Dakota State again 9-0 (five). In previous weeks, the team has also counted wins against ranked opponents including UCLA, currently ranked No. 10, and No. 13 Texas.
In 2011, no team has held the poll's top spot consecutively for more than one week, with Alabama (20-1) becoming the latest No. 1 to fall from the top spot. Behind a 1-0 loss to Louisiana Lafayette, the Crimson Tide fell to second place, despite eight first-place votes. Alabama recovered from the lone loss of the season with three wins including a 10-0 (five) pounding of now-No. 15 Oregon.
Georgia (17-1) received a No. 1 vote but are ranked third, down a spot from last week. Hosting the 2011 Bulldog Invitational, the team topped Indiana 2-0, Campbell 7-0 and Chattanooga 4-3 but had other contests rained out.
No. 4 Arizona (19-2), No. 5 Michigan (22-0), No. 6 Washington (16-0), No. 7 Arizona State (17-1) and No. 8 Tennessee (20-2) hold the same spots from last week. With wins against two ranked teams last week, Oklahoma State and Auburn, Oklahoma (17-5) reenters the Top 10 at No. 9. Behind a 5-1 loss to Baylor, UCLA dropped a spot to No. 10.
Baylor (19-2) enters the Top 25 for the first time this season, coming in at No. 22. At the Campbell/Cartier Classic in San Diego, the Bears topped UCLA, Fresno State and Cal Poly but lost 7-1 to Long Beach State.
Auburn dropped out of the poll with a 6-0 loss to Oklahoma and a 3-2 contest with Oklahoma State. The team did defeat Illinois-Chicago 3-2 and also beat Oklahoma State 4-3 in their first meeting. Last week, the Tigers ranked No. 25, their first national ranking since May 2006.
Another undefeated week from the Georgia Bulldogs (17-1) proved enough to turn back another tough challenge from Florida and remain the No. 1 team in the land for third straight week, according to the latest USA Today/NFCA Division I Top 25 Poll that was released by the association on Tuesday.
Despite receiving 20 first-place votes compared to just eight by the second-ranked Gators (19-0), Georgia only finished this week's voting five points ahead of its SEC rival. The rest of the top five was also unchanged as Alabama (20-1), Arizona (19-2) and Washington (16-0) all held onto to third, fourth and fifth, respectively.
Making their first appearances of 2011 in the poll this week were No. 23 Baylor and No. 25 Syracuse. The ranking is the first for the Bears (19-2) since Mar. 22 of last year when they were ranked 25th, while Syracuse's ranking marks the first time in program history that the Orange (16-3) have been featured in the weekly poll.
