Minnesota Volleyball Team Falls to No. 13 in USA Today/AVCA Poll - GOPHERSPORTS.COM - The Official Athletic Site of the Minnesota Gophers

Minnesota Volleyball Team Falls to No. 13 in USA Today/AVCA Poll
The Minnesota volleyball team fell to No. 13 in the USA Today/AVCA Top-25 poll on Monday, Sept. 1. The Golden Gophers received 726 points in the poll to drop from their preseason No. 6 ranking.

MThe Minnesota volleyball team fell to No. 13 in the USA Today/AVCA Top-25 poll on Monday, Sept. 1. The Golden Gophers received 726 points in the poll to drop from their preseason No. 6 ranking.

Minnesota struggled in its first weekend of play losing all three matches in the Hawaiian Airlines Tournament. The Golden Gophers lost in three games to No. 2 Hawai'i on Aug. 29, lost in four games to No. 22 Louisville and fell in three games to No. 13 UCLA.

The Golden Gophers hit .207, while allowing their opponents to hit .305 on the week. Minnesota also had 37 service errors in the three matches, while only recording five service aces.

Minnesota is the second-highest ranked Big Ten team in the top 25. Penn State is the highest ranked team at No. 9, Ohio State is tied at No. 18, Wisconsin is No. 24 and Michigan State is No. 25.

The Golden Gophers have been ranked in the top 25 for 18 straight weeks.

Minnesota will be back in action on Friday, Sept. 5 when it returns home for the Nike Invitational. The Golden Gophers will take on Kansas on Friday, Sept. 5 at 7:30 p.m., Dayton on Saturday, Sept. 6 at 12:30 p.m. and Marquette on Sept. 6 at 7:30 p.m.

Rank School Total Points 2003 Record Last Week 1 USC (65) 1625 5-0 1 2 Hawai'i 1550 3-1 2 3 Florida 1492 4-1 3 4 Stanford 1435 3-0 4 5 Nebraska 1334 3-0 7 6 No. Iowa 1191 2-1 8 7 UCSB 1170 1-0 9 8 Pepperdine 1166 2-1 5 9 Penn State 1041 4-0 11 10 Arizona 1006 2-1 10 11 UCLA 1003 2-0 13 12 Georgia Tech 915 3-0 12 13 Minnesota 726 0-3 6 14 Kansas State 689 3-2 15 15 LBSU 683 2-0 16 16 Louisville 488 1-2 22 17 UNC 430 3-0 20 18-T Ohio State 397 0-0 18 18-T Missouri 397 3-0 21 20 Santa Clara 377 1-1 14 21 Notre Dame 362 2-1 NR 22 California 303 2-0 24 23 Washington 295 3-0 NR 24 Wisconsin 261 2-1 17 25 Michigan St. 208 3-0 22 Others receiving points and listed on two or more ballots: Pacific 205; Miami (Fla.) 90; San Diego (87); Texas A&M 83; Washington State 24; Texas 19; BYU 18; Colorado State 18; Loyola Marymount 13; San Francisco 6.

Seven teams mentioned on only one ballot for a total of 18 combined points.