September 09, 2002
The Texas A&M volleyball moved up one spot to No. 16 in the USA Today/AVCA Top 25 Poll, released today.
The Aggies (5-1) made the climb after going 2-1 last week, not including a sweep against the University of Montreal in an exhibition match. A&M swept Southwest Texas State in San Marcos in a mid-week contest and Montreal in the opener of Wisconsin InnTowner Invitational on Friday. On Saturday, the Aggies defeated Illinois State in four games and then suffered their first loss of the season as then-No. 16 Wisconsin downed A&M in four games to capture the tournament title.
Defending national champion Stanford remains No. 1 in the rankings. USC, Hawaii, Nebraska and Long Beach State round out the top five.
The Big 12 Conference is represented by three teams in the Top 25: No. 4 Nebraska, No. 16 Texas A&M and No. 24 Kansas State. Colorado and Texas both received points and are listed 32nd and 35th, respectively.
The Aggies, who have been ranked in every regular-season AVCA Top 25 Poll since Sept. 26, 1995, when A&M broke in at No. 24, return home Sept. 13-14 to host the McDonald's Texas A&M Invitational II. A&M opens the tournament against Sam Houston State at 7 p.m. on Friday and then faces both Louisiana-Lafayette and perennial power BYU Saturday at 1 and 7 p.m., respectively.
The following is the complete USA Today/AVCA Top 25 Poll with first-place votes in parentheses:
Rk School (1st) Pts Rec LW 1 Stanford (59) 1617 6-0 1 2 USC (2) 1550 6-0 3 3 Hawaii (4) 1483 6-0 4 4 Nebraska 1436 4-1 2 5 Long Beach State 1370 6-0 5 6 Florida 1288 5-1 6 7 Northern Iowa 1225 8-1 9 8 Utah 1179 5-1 8 9 Ohio State 947 3-2 10 10 Pepperdine 894 5-3 14 11 Penn State 839 6-0 15 12 Wisconsin 810 4-1 16 13 Minnesota 808 7-2 20 14 UCLA 802 3-3 7 15 Arizona 624 3-3 11 16 Texas A&M 588 5-1 17 17 Colorado State 573 4-1 18 18 UC Santa Barbara 534 6-0 19 19 Michigan State 529 5-1 12 20 North Carolina 461 6-0 23 21 Pacific 306 3-3 13 22 Santa Clara 262 6-0 24 23 South Carolina 246 5-1 -- 24 Kansas State 173 4-1 25 25 Washington State 111 6-0 -- Others receiving points and listed on two or more ballots: Illinois (98), San Diego (65), Duke (64), Georgia Tech (38), Louisville (35), Arkansas (29), Colorado (26), Eastern Washington (21), Loyola Marymount (21), Texas (19), Wright State (15), Missouri (7), California (4), Notre Dame (4), Arizona State (3). Five teams mentioned on only one ballot for a total of 21 combined points.