BATON ROUGE — Despite posting a pair of Southeastern Conference wins on the road last weekend, the LSU volleyball team dropped one spot in the AVCA/CSTV Coaches poll, coming in at No. 11 it was announced on Monday.
After sweeping Georgia, 3-0, in Athens to complete the series sweep of the Bulldogs this season, the Tigers topped the Gamecocks, 3-1, to pull three games ahead of Alabama in the Southeastern Conference Western Division. LSU is now 20-3 overall and 12-2 in league play, as it have six SEC matches remaining in the double round robin conference schedule.
The Tigers began the season receiving votes in the AVCA/CSTV poll, with LSU coming in at No. 30 among the preseason vote getters. The Tigers then jumped to No. 22 in the first regular season poll and moved steadily up the polls to No. 10 until a loss at Alabama on Oct. 8 dropped them down. LSU had moved up the polls since that point to reach No. 10 again until falling back to No. 11 this week.
The Tigers joins Florida as the two Southeastern Conference teams in the AVCA/CSTV poll. Florida leads the way at No. 7, while Alabama is among the other teams receiving votes at No. 32.
LSU returns home this weekend to face nationally ranked Florida at 7 p.m. on Friday. The Tigers fell to the Gators in Gainesville two weeks ago, one of only two losses for LSU in SEC play this season. The Tigers will then take on Auburn on Nov. 5 at 1:30 p.m.
Students are encouraged to come out against No. 7 Florida for “Gold Digger Student Night”. It is the Student Point game and “Gold Digger” t-shirts will be given away. In addition, the Benjy Davis Project will perform following the match in the Maravich Center.
Mizuno is helping youth volleyball as part of “Mizuno Team Day” against Auburn. Local teams get into the match free with “Advocate” tickets available through the LSU Promotions office at 578-8960. In addition, LSU backpacks will be given away at the match.
AVCA/CSTV Division I Coaches Top 25 Poll
Rank. School (First-Place Votes), Total Points, 2006 Record, Last Week
1. Nebraska (59), 1499, 20-0, 1
2. Stanford (1), 1425, 19-2, 3
3. Penn State, 1342, 22-1, 2
4. Washington, 1340, 19-3, 6
5. UCLA, 1260, 22-2, 4
6. Southern California, 1183, 19-3, 5
7. Florida, 1159, 20-2, 7
8. Texas, 1057, 15-5, 8
9. Utah, 982, 20-2, 9
10. Wisconsin, 913, 17-5, 14
11. LSU, 834, 20-3, 10
12. Minnesota, 817, 16-6, 12
13. California, 795, 17-5, 11
14. Purdue, 728, 19-4, 13
15. San Diego, 593, 19-4, 18
16. Hawai’i, 589, 17-5, 15
17. Oklahoma, 503, 19-4, 20
18. BYU, 498, 19-3, 17
19. Cal Poly, 380, 17-5, 19
20. Santa Clara, 375, 16-5, 21
21. Missouri, 306, 14-8, 16
22. Ohio, 302, 20-3, 22
23. New Mexico State, 291, 26-1, 23
24. Oregon, 98, 16-4, NR
25. Ohio State, 70, 15-7, 24
Others Receiving Votes and appearing on two or more ballots: St John’s 65; Long Beach State 25; Duke 24; Colorado 7; Baylor 5; Sacramento State 5; Alabama 4; Bowling Green 4; San Francisco 4; Louisville 3.