Minnesota Volleyball Team Slides to No. 20 in USA Today/AVCA Poll - GOPHERSPORTS.COM - The Official Athletic Site of the Minnesota Gophers

Minnesota Volleyball Team Slides to No. 20 in USA Today/AVCA Poll
The Minnesota volleyball team slid to No. 20 in the USA Today/AVCA Top 25 poll on Monday, Sept. 8. The Golden Gophers received 348 points in the poll to drop from last week's No. 13 ranking.

MinnThe Minnesota volleyball team slid to No. 20 in the USA Today/AVCA Top 25 poll on Monday, Sept. 8. The Golden Gophers received 348 points in the poll to drop from last week's No. 13 ranking.

Minnesota went 2-1 and finished second in the Nike Invitational this past weekend. The Golden Gophers recovered from a five-game loss at the hands of Kansas on Sept. 5, to bounce back and win in three games against Dayton and Marquette on Sept. 6.

In the Golden Gophers two victories in the tournament they hit .321 (115-37-243), and had 16 service aces. Cassie Busse (Prior Lake, Minn.) tallied 10 of those service aces, including a career-high seven against Marquette on Sept. 6.

Minnesota is one of four Big Ten teams in the top 25. Penn State is the highest ranked team at No. 8, Michigan State is No. 17 and Wisconsin is No. 25. Ohio State is the highest team on the other receiving votes list.

The Golden Gophers have been ranked in the top 25 for 19 straight weeks.

This week Minnesota heads to Gainesville, Fla. to play in the UF Hilton Classic on Friday, Sept. 12 and Saturday, Sept. 13. The Golden Gophers will take on Xavier on Sept. 12 at 5 p.m. (ET). On Sept. 13, Minnesota will play either Florida A&M or Florida in either the championship match at 3:30 p.m. (ET) or the consolation match at 1:30 p.m. (ET).

Rank School Total Points * 2003 Record Last Week 1 USC 1,625 6-0 1 2 Hawai'i 1,544 7-1 2 3 Florida 1,511 6-1 3 4 Stanford 1,388 4-1 4 5 Nebraska 1,359 5-0 5 6 No. Iowa 1,266 3-1 6 7 Pepperdine 1,216 5-2 8 8 Penn State 1,154 7-0 9 9 UCLA 1,112 5-1 11 10 Georgia Tech 1,008 5-0 12 11 UC Santa Barbara 902 2-2 7 12 Kansas State 886 6-2 14 13 Santa Clara 746 5-1 20 14 Arizona 625 4-3 10 15 Notre Dame 596 4-1 21 16 California 544 5-0 22 17 Michigan State 478 5-0 25 18 Washington 473 6-0 23 19 Long Beach State 429 3-1 15 20 Minnesota 348 2-4 13 21 Louisville 332 3-3 16 22 Loyola Marymount 294 7-0 NR 23 Missouri 274 5-1 18-tie 24 Pacific 207 3-1 NR 25 Wisconsin 171 4-2 24 Others receiving points and listed on two or more ballots: Ohio State 167, North Carolina 127, Texas A&M 102, San Diego 54; Utah 45, Miami (Fla.) 29, Colorado State 28, Kansas 26, San Francisco 18, Eastern Washington 11, Fresno Sate 5, Southwest Missouri State 3, Western Michigan 3.