Softball Rankings: Week 11
4/19/2011 12:00:00 AM | Softball
April 19, 2011
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - The Alabama softball team remained the same in the ESPN.com/USA Softball poll, checking in at No.3, while the Crimson Tide moved up a spot to No. 4 in the USA Today/NFCA poll. The University of Michigan is the new No.1 in both polls.
Michigan is the No. 1 team in collegiate softball for the first time this season. The Wolverines (39-3, 7-1 Big Ten) finished five points ahead of Arizona State, last week's No. 1 team, in the ESPN.com/USA Softball Collegiate Top 25 poll released today by the Amateur Softball Association (ASA) of America.
Michigan is the first team from the Big Ten Conference to hold the coveted No. 1 spot in 2011, an honor only held by Pacific-10 (Pac-10) and Southeastern Conference (SEC) schools this season. Teams that previously held the No. 1 spot this season are Alabama, Arizona, Arizona State, Florida, Georgia and UCLA.
Michigan defeated Western Michigan 6-1, Central Michigan 3-0 and Illinois 8-6 and 9-7 in Week 10, earning the Maize and Blue eight No. 1 votes for the second consecutive week. Arizona State (39-5, 6-3 Pac-10) claimed the most first-place votes, 11, but it was not enough for the Sun Devils to remain on top after a 4-1 loss to then-No. 11 UCLA.
Alabama (41-5, 15-4 SEC) remained at No. 3. Georgia (39-6, 14-5 SEC), claiming one first-place vote, tied with Tennessee (38-6, 15-4 SEC) at No. 4. Georgia moved up a spot from last week while Tennessee jumped two spots, entering the Top 5 for the first time in 2011.
For the first time since February of 2006, Michigan (39-3) is the No. 1 softball team in the nation according to latest USA Today/NFCA Division I Top 25 poll that was released by the Association on Tuesday. By climbing to the top spot this week, the Wolverines became the fifth different team to hold the prestigious position this season.
Michigan picked up 15 of the 30 first-place votes and finished 26 points ahead of previous No. 1 and this week's No. 2, Arizona St. (39-5), who also picked up 12 first-place votes. The other three first-place votes went to Georgia (39-6) who came in at third, while fellow SEC member Alabama (41-5) finished in fourth. Rounding out the top five this week was Texas (37-4), who fell from third after going 3-1 during the past week.
After being ranked in every regular-season poll this season, Texas Tech (39-9) fell out of the rankings this week, finishing just five points behind No. 25 Auburn (32-12). Filling the empty spot left by the Red Raiders was Notre Dame (31-8), which joined the rankings at 24th for the first time since the final regular-season poll of 2010.
