(Portions of this story courtesy of Colorado College athletics)
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – For the first time in program history, the Colorado College volleyball team is ranked No. 1 in the American Volleyball Coaches Association Division III Coaches Poll.
The Tigers took over the top spot after Wittenberg University dropped a pair of matches last Saturday.
At the same time, CC won three matches at last week's Spike It Up! Classic to improve to 29-1 overall and 29-0 against DIII foes.
In addition to achieving a program first, Colorado College also became the first Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference volleyball team to hold the nation's top ranking.
As has been the case for much of this season, the SCAC has three teams in the top five this week. In addition to Colorado College ascending to the top spot, Southwestern University is second and Trinity University is fifth. It is the seventh consecutive week that the SCAC has had three of the top five teams in the nation - the longest consecutive streak in the history of the AVCA poll that one conference has kept three teams in the top five.
"We're excited for our players and the program to be recognized," head coach Rick Swan said. "It's been a team effort to get us where we are today. Being ranked No. 1 is great, however our focus is being prepared to play our best at this week's SCAC championship."
The SCAC has had a team ranked second 15 different times over the years, including the last eight polls this year. Trinity has been No. 2 seven different times in program history with the last such occurance coming 9/17/03. Southwestern has been No. 2 three different times, including this week's poll, and Colorado College has been No. 2 in this season's last five AVCA Top 25 rankings before jumping to the top spot this week.
With Colorado College at No. 1 and Southwestern at No. 2, the SCAC becomes just the fourth conference in the history of the AVCA rankings to hold down the top two spots in any one week's poll. The last time it happened was Sept. 13, 2016 when the SCIAC's Cal Lutheran and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps were 1-2 in the rankings. The UAA has achieved this feat five times (last time was 11/10/15 with Wash. U and Emory) and the MIAA has done it 12 times (last time was 11/11/14 with Calvin and Hope).
AVCA DIVISION III COACHES TOP 25 WEEK #9 POLL: OCTOBER 31, 2017
|
Rank |
School (First-Place Votes) |
Total Points Adjusted |
2017 Record |
Previous Week |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Colorado College (59) | 1633 | 29-1 | 2 |
| 2 | Southwestern (TX) (2) | 1549 | 27-4 | 3 |
| 3 | Calvin (3) | 1508 | 24-3 | 4 |
| 4 | Wittenberg (1) | 1452 | 20-2 | 1 |
| 5 | Trinity (TX) | 1400 | 26-6 | 5 |
| 6 | Claremont-Mudd-Scripps | 1331 | 23-5 | 7 |
| 7 | Emory | 1188 | 25-5 | 8 |
| 8 | Millikin | 1112 | 26-6 | 10 |
| 9 | Carnegie-Mellon | 1060 | 27-3 | 6 |
| 10 | Johnson & Wales (RI) (2) | 1037 | 28-0 | 11 |
| 11 | Illinois Wesleyan | 942 | 21-6 | 13 |
| 12 | Northwestern (MN) | 869 | 30-6 | 14 |
| 13 | Gustavus Adolphus | 758 | 23-5 | 16 |
| 14 | Johns Hopkins | 693 | 22-3 | 17 |
| 15 | Stevenson | 573 | 30-1 | 19 |
| 16 | Wisconsin-Whitewater | 546 | 20-7 | 9 |
| 17 | St. Thomas (MN) | 536 | 24-5 | 18 |
| 18 | Ohio Northern | 500 | 25-4 | 20 |
| 19 | Washington-St. Louis | 479 | 20-9 | 12 |
| 20 | Chicago | 463 | 22-6 | 15 |
| 21 | MIT | 361 | 26-2 | 22 |
| 22 | Juniata | 338 | 21-8 | 21 |
| 23 | Christopher Newport | 327 | 25-3 | 23 |
| 24 | Carthage | 124 | 22-8 | NR |
| 25 | Aurora | 112 | 25-6 | NR |
Others receiving votes and listed on two or more ballots: Randolph-Macon 101; Concordia (WI) 87; Pacific Lutheran 81; Tufts 78; Ithaca 60; Wisconsin-La Crosse 60; Berry 52; Wisconsin-Eau Claire 52; Otterbein 46; Scranton 40; Mary Hardin-Baylor 39; La Verne 34; Texas-Dallas 28; Cornell (IA) 20; Wesleyan (CT) 18; Wisconsin-Stevens Point 13; DePauw 10; Stevens 10; Cal Lutheran 6; Mount Union 2
Eight teams mentioned on only one ballot for a total of 32 combined points.
Dropped Out: Pacific Lutheran 25; Berry 24
Next Poll: November 7
