BATON ROUGE — After going 6-0 last week to claim the Easton Purple & Gold Challenge championship, the LSU Softball team remained at No. 6 in the ESPN/USA Softball poll released Tuesday.
Last weekend, the Tigers (17-1) went undefeated to claim their second tournament title of the season. LSU knocked off Southern Miss, 4-0 and 9-0 in five innings; Troy, 9-1 in six innings and 13-0 in five innings, and Louisiana Tech, 8-0 and 10-1 – both in five innings. Dani Hofer was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player and the Southeastern Conference Pitcher of the Week, while Jazz Jackson, Leslie Klein and Emily Turner were named to the all-tournament team.
LSU has been ranked in 57 of the 66 (.864) ESPN/USA Softball polls. The Tigers have now been ranked in the top 10 for 27 weeks in the poll’s history. LSU’s highest national ranking in school history was No. 2 in the ESPN/USA Softball poll on two occasions during the 2004 season.
SEC rival Tennessee remained at No.1 in the poll this week. Arizona jumped up two spots to No. 2, while Alabama also moved up two spots to No. 3. Arizona State fell one position to No. 4, while Texas A&M ended its climb up the poll by falling three spots to No. 5. Following LSU at No. 6 are Oklahoma, Stanford, Michigan and Texas, who round out the Top 10.
The Pac-10 still leads the way with all eight teams ranked in the top 25, followed by the SEC with five ranked teams and the Big 12 with four. Among the five SEC teams in the top 25, three are in the top 10, including Tennessee, Alabama and LSU. Florida comes in at No. 20 and Georgia is ranked 23rd. South Carolina moved into the teams receiving votes this week as well.
LSU returns to action today with a doubleheader against Alcorn State, which upset nationally ranked UL-Lafayette on Friday. The first game will begin at 4 p.m., with the second game following 20 minutes after the conclusion of game one. The Tigers travel to Seattle next weekend for the University of Washington Tournament. LSU will take on the nationally ranked Huskies, Portland State and North Dakota State in the three-day round robin tournament.
The ESPN.com/USA Softball poll is voted on by NCAA Division I coaches representing 15 different Amateur Softball Association regions and 11 different collegiate conferences. The poll is also voted on by selected softball media members.
2007 ESPN.com/USA Softball Top 25 Poll
Rank
Team
Record
Points
PVS
1.
Tennessee (20)
15-0
500
1
2.
Arizona
11-3
454
4
3.
Alabama
16-0
445
5
4.
Arizona State
17-1
444
3
5
Texas A&M
13-2
437
2
6
LSU
17-1
391
6
7.
Oklahoma
16-0
390
10
8.
Stanford
14-2
355
8
9.
Michigan
14-1
309
13
10.
Texas
12-3
303
11
11.
UL-Lafayette
18-2
296
9
12
Northwestern
10-5
292
12
13
Oregon State
8-5
266
7
14.
Washington
12-2
260
15
15.
UCLA
10-5
243
14
16.
Baylor
15-4
186
16
17.
Oregon
15-1
140
25
18.
California
10-6
115
17
19.
Florida State
11-3
110
20
20.
Florida
14-5
102
19
21.
Georgia Tech
12-2
86
RV
22.
Southern Illinois
12-3
79
RV
23.
Georgia
11-6
62
18
24.
Hawaii
12-2
54
RV
25.
Illinois State
11-4
47
RV
Parenthesis denotes first place votes
Others Receiving Votes: Virginia Tech (36),Nebraska (32), NC State (24), Fresno State (17), UMass (8), South Florida (5), South Carolina (4), Tennessee Tech (4), DePaul (2), Cal State Fullerton (2) and Ohio State (2).