BATON ROUGE — A day after moving into a tie for fifth in the ESPN/USA Softball poll, the LSU softball team moved up one place from No. 9 to No. 8 in the NFCA/USA Today poll.
After beginning the year at No. 9 in the preseason NFCA poll, LSU (6-0) jumped one place to its highest ranking in this poll since the 2005 preseason poll when the Tigers were ranked No. 5.
Last weekend, LSU went undefeated to win the Easton Tiger Classic and claim their first tournament title of the season. The Tigers knocked of Memphis, 3-1, Middle Tennessee, 6-2, Missouri, 7-1, and Centenary, 9-0, in five innings to earn the tournament’s top seed. LSU then topped Middle Tennessee, 2-0 to advance to the championship game. It took nine innings, but the Tigers knocked off Memphis, 7-2, behind a grand slam from Kristen Hobbs, to claim the championship
LSU has now been ranked for 16 straight weeks after having their streak of 103 consecutive weeks snapped on March 30, 2005, a streak that dated back to Feb. 28, 1998. In all, LSU has been ranked in 120 of the 141 polls (.851) that have been released since the program was reinstated in 1997. The Tigers have been ranked in the top 10 for 75 weeks in the program’s history.
SEC rival Tennessee moved up from No. 2 to No. 1 in the polls this week after losses by six of the preseason top 10 teams. Undefeated Arizona State jumped to No. 2, knocking defending national champion Arizona from the top spot and into third.
Bolstered by four wins over nationally ranked teams, Texas A&M jumped from No. 13 to No. 4 this week. Rounding out the Top 10 are Alabama, Northwestern, Oregon State, LSU, UCLA and Texas.
The Pac-10 still leads the way with seven teams ranked in the top 25, followed by the SEC and Big 12 with five ranked teams. Among the five SEC teams in the top 25, three are in the top 10, including Tennessee, LSU and Alabama. Georgia comes in at No. 18 and Florida is ranked 20th.
The NFCA/USA Today poll is voted on by NCAA Division I head coaches representing each conference.
NFCA/USA Today Coaches Poll
Rank School Record Pts. Pvs.
1. Tennessee (26) 4-0 745 2
2. Arizona State 8-0 691 5
3. Arizona (1) 4-2 661 1
4. Texas A&M (1) 5-0 625 13
5. Alabama 5-0 604 7
6. Northwestern 2-3 535 4
7. Oregon State 2-1 529 6
8. LSU 6-0 523 9
9. UCLA 2-3 492 3
10. Texas (2) 4-1 454 17
11. California 3-1 423 10
12. Oklahoma 5-0 398 16
13. Stanford 3-2 395 8
14. Michigan 4-1 389 11
15. Washington 3-1 350 12
16. Louisiana-Lafayette 6-0 336 19
17. Baylor 6-0 312 18
18. Georgia 4-2 227 14
19. Nebraska 4-3 187 15
20. Florida 4-1 181 NR
21. Fresno State 3-2 155 21
22. Florida State 4-0 100 25
23. Massachusetts 2-2-1 95 23
24. South Florida 3-2 57 22
25. DePaul 5-2 55 NR
Others Receiving Votes:
Louisville 29, BYU 29, N.C. State 27, Hawaii 25, Southern Illinois 23, Cal State Fullerton 17, Georgia Tech 17, Oregon 10, Penn State 9, Houston 8, Wisconsin 7, North Carolina 4, Illinois State 3, Five Others with One Vote Each.