BATON ROUGE — For the second straight year, the LSU softball team finished the year ranked No. 10 in the nation in the ESPN/USA Softball poll.
The Tigers dropped to No. 10 in the final poll after closing out the season ranked No. 3 in the last regular season poll. This marks the fourth time in the poll’s five-year history that LSU has finished the year in the top 10, recording its highest final national ranking, No. 3, following the 2004 season.
The Tigers completed the 2007 campaign with a 55-12, recording the ninth 50-win season in 11 years, one of only two schools who have achieved that feat. In addition, LSU was 22-6 in the Southeastern Conference, winning its eighth SEC Western Division championship while finishing second overall.
The Tigers entered the season with its highest preseason ranking in the ESPN/USA Softball poll, coming in at No. 7. LSU climbed as high as No. 3 in the final regular season poll and were ranked in the top 10 in all but one of the 14 weekly polls.
The Tigers have now been ranked in 70 of the 79 polls that have been released since the poll began on Feb. 25, 2003, making the Tigers ranked in 88.6 percent of the national polls. In addition, LSU has been ranked in the top 10 for 39 weeks in the poll’s history.
After sweeping through NCAA Regional play in Palo Alto, Calif., including wins over nationally ranked Stanford and Fresno State, the Tigers were sent to Tempe, Ariz., to play the seventh overall national seed Arizona State. Unfortunately, LSU could not advance past the Sun Devils for its third Women’s College World Series berth.
The Tigers concluded the season with an 11-6 record against nationally ranked teams, including a 5-4 mark against teams ranked in the top 10. LSU is one of five SEC teams ranked in the poll. Along with the Tigers, Tennessee is ranked No. 2, Alabama is No. 11, Florida is No. 15 and South Carolina comes in at No. 24. The five conference teams that finished ranked were only two behind the Pac-10, which led all conferences with seven ranked in the final poll.
ESPN/USA Softball Final Top 25 Poll
Rank
Team
Record
Points
PVS
1.
Arizona (20)
50-14-1
500
4
2.
Tennessee
63-8
480
2
3.
Washington
42-9
457
11
4.
Northwestern
52-13
443
6
5
Baylor
51-16
415
7
6
DePaul
47-13
393
14
7.
Arizona State
54-17
376
9
8.
Texas A&M
46-14
369
8
9.
Oklahoma
55-8
322
1
10
LSU
55-12
310
3
11.
Alabama
55-10
306
5
12.
Michigan
47-13
290
10
13.
Hawaii
50-13
265
16
14.
Virginia Tech
49-16
197
13
15.
Florida
50-22
179
22
16.
Georgia Tech
54-16
164
15
17.
Oregon State
41-23
152
17
18.
UCLA
37-18
122
12
19.
Missouri
40-24
118
19
20.
Fullerton
38-23
117
RV
21.
Stanford
35-21-1
113
18
22.
Ohio State
40-18
99
21
23.
Oregon
44-19
95
20
24.
South Carolina
38-26
75
NR
25.
Fresno State
47-18
56
23
Others Receiving Votes: Texas (25), Creighton (14), Illinois State (13), Southern Illinois (10), Cal Poly (5), Nebraska (4), Tennessee Tech (4), California (3), Louisville (3), Loyola Marymount (3), BYU (2) and NC State (1).