haThe Minnesota volleyball team moved up a spot to No. 5 according to the USA Today/CSTV weekly poll, which was released on Monday, Sept. 5. Minnesota received 1,210 points in the poll.

Minnesota has now been ranked in the top five in 18 of last 19 polls dating back to the final poll of 2003.

The Golden Gophers were the second-highest ranked team of the four Big Teams that are in the poll. Penn State was the highest ranked team at No. 4 in the nation. After Minnesota at No. 5, is No. 9 Wisconsin and No. 12 Ohio State. Purdue, Northwestern and Illinois were also among teams receiving votes in the preseason poll.

Minnesota lost a tightly contested match against No. 1 Nebraska on Sept. 5. The Golden Gophers travel to No. 24 Kansas State to play in the Kansas State Invitational on Sept. 9-10.

Rank School (First-Place Votes) Total Points 2005 Record Last Week 1 Nebraska (58) 1,498 4-0 1 2 Washington (2) 1,427 4-0 2 3 Stanford 1,384 4-1 3 4 Penn State 1,316 4-1 5 5 Minnesota 1,210 3-0 6 6 Florida 1,153 4-0 8 7 Hawai'i 1,146 2-3 4 8 Southern California 957 2-2 7 9 Wisconsin 939 3-0 10 10 UCLA 887 3-0 13 11 Louisville 849 3-0 14 12 Ohio State 823 2-1 12 13 Texas A&M 706 5-0 16 14 Missouri 651 2-0 21 15 Arizona 610 3-0 17 16 Tennessee 608 2-1 9 17 Texas 581 1-1 11 18 UC Santa Barbara 519 2-1 15 19 Notre Dame 446 3-0 NR 20 San Diego 431 4-1 18 21 California 424 4-0 19 22 Long Beach State 180 3-1 24 23 Saint Mary’s (Calif.) 164 5-1 23 24 Kansas State 126 5-0 NR 25 Santa Clara 86 3-0 NR Others receiving points and listed on two or more ballots: Pepperdine 72, Purdue 52, BYU 43, Georgia Tech 35, Ohio 33, Colorado State 24, Rice 23, Illinois 23, Loyola Marymount 19, Florida A&M 16, Northwestern 12, Northern Iowa 7, Kansas 3, Utah 3.