BATON ROUGE — After a six-week hiatus from the top 10, the LSU women’s basketball team is back as it came in at No. 9 in the Associated Press poll and No. 10 in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll, it was announced Monday.
LSU had been 11th in both polls last week, but moved up after winning at No. 17 Mississippi State, 70-63, and putting in a strong performance on the road at second-ranked Tennessee before falling 89-70.
The Lady Tigers were one of seven teams from the Southeastern Conference to earn rankings. Tennessee led the way at No. 2 with Georgia close behind at No. 4 in each poll. Florida was one spot behind LSU as it was ranked 10th by the AP and 11th by the coaches. Vanderbilt, Mississippi State and Auburn were also in the polls.
Defending national champion Connectucut held onto the top spot in both polls. Undefeated Notre Dame is ranked third and Duke is fifth. Purdue, which LSU beat earlier in the year, held on the No. 6 spot with Iowa State and Louisiana Tech ranked seventh and eighth, respectively.
The top eight teams were identical in both polls.
LSU, which was ranked as high as No. 7 at one point, lost their No. 10 ranking earlier in the year following consecutive losses to No. 16 Southwest Missouri State and No. 9 Penn State. The team had fallen as low as 20th before winning eight of their last nine.
LSU will be in action twice this week, both times at home. Thursday, the Lady Tigers host Arkansas at 7 p.m. Sunday, they will face No. 4 Georgia at 2 p.m.