BATON ROUGE — After clinching the Southeastern Conference Western Division title last weekend, the LSU volleyball team remained at No. 11 in the AVCA/CSTV Coaches poll, it was announced on Monday.
The Tigers began last week with a 3-0 sweep of rival Arkansas at home on Wednesday, marking the first two-match season sweep of the Lady Razorbacks in school history. LSU closed out the week with a 3-0 sweep of Alabama on Friday, which gave the Tigers their first outright SEC Western Division title in school history. LSU and Arkansas shared the title last year, the Tigers’ first.
LSU is now 23-4 overall and 15-3 in Southeastern Conference play, five games ahead of the Crimson Tide with two conference matches remaining. The Tigers have now won the most overall matches since 1992 and broke the school record for SEC wins in a season. LSU remains two games back of Florida for the overall SEC championship.
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 two weeks ago.
The Tigers join Florida as the two Southeastern Conference teams in the AVCA/CSTV poll. Florida leads the way at No. 7. Three other LSU opponents are currently ranked including No. 5 Penn State, which the Tigers lost to in a heartbreaker, 3-2; No. 12 Minnesota, which LSU swept earlier this season; and No. 24 St. John’s, which the Tigers will play in two weeks.
LSU will close out the SEC regular season this weekend as the Tigers travel to Mississippi. LSU will travel to Mississippi State on Friday for a rematch with the Bulldogs at 7 p.m. The Tigers will then close out the conference season at Ole Miss on Sunday at 1:30 p.m. LSU will conclude the 2006 regular season in Orlando on Thanksgiving Weekend in the SEC/Big East Challenge. The Tigers will face No. 24 St. John’s and Marquette in the two-day tournament.
AVCA /CSTV Division I Coaches Top 25 Poll
Rank
School (First-Place Votes)
Total Points
2006 Record
Last Week
1
Nebraska (40)
1462
23-1
1
2
Washington (15)
1395
22-3
4
3
Stanford (5)
1381
21-3
2
4
Southern California
1333
23-3
6
5
Penn State
1257
25-2
3
6
UCLA
1219
25-3
5
7
Florida
1160
24-2
7
8
Texas
1066
19-5
8
9
Utah
999
23-2
9
10
Wisconsin
978
21-5
10
11
LSU
838
23-4
11
12
Minnesota
821
19-7
13
13
Hawai’i
708
21-5
14
14
Oklahoma
681
22-5
15
15
California
676
17-8
12
16
Cal Poly
594
21-5
17
17
San Diego
534
22-5
18
18
Ohio
441
24-3
19
19
Ohio State
383
19-7
23
20
BYU
331
22-4
21
21
New Mexico State
327
29-2
20
22
Santa Clara
250
20-6
22
23
Purdue
202
19-8
16
24
St. John’s
82
29-1
NR
25
Pepperdine
79
14-10
NR
Others Receiving Votes and appearing on two or more ballots: Missouri 65; Duke 46; Colorado 40; Long Beach State 37; Michigan 30; Oregon 19; Louisville 18; Iowa State 17; Sacramento State 14; Michigan State 8; San Francisco 4.