polThe Minnesota volleyball team (10-1) remained at No. 5 in the USA Today/ CSTV weekly poll for a third straight week, which was released on Monday, Sept. 19. Minnesota received 1,269 points in the poll.

Minnesota has now been ranked in the top five in 20 of the last 21 polls dating back to the final poll of 2003, and in three of the first four polls of this season.

Three Big Ten teams were ranked in the top 10 this week. The Golden Gophers were the second-highest ranked team of the five 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. 10 Wisconsin, No. 16 Ohio State and No. 19 Purdue.

Fifth-ranked Minnesota will face No. 10 Wisconsin in its Big Ten opener on Friday, Sept. 23 at 7 p.m. in Madison, Wis. It will be the 21st time that two top 10 teams have met in Big Ten play. Last year, it happened on five different occasions. Minnesota was involved in three of the meetings (twice with Penn State and once with Ohio State).

Rank School (First-Place Votes) Total Points * 2005 RecordLast Week 1 Nebraska (58) 1,498 9-0 1 2 Washington (2) 1,435 9-0 2 3 Stanford 1,380 11-1 3 4 Penn State 1,313 9-2 4 5 Minnesota 1,269 10-1 5 6 Florida 1,120 9-1 7 7 Louisville 1,082 9-0 9 8 Missouri 1,067 8-0 10 9 Hawai'i 1,063 5-5 6 10 Wisconsin 947 8-1 13 11 Notre Dame 866 7-1 8 12 Southern California 807 4-4 12 13 UCLA 771 7-2 11 14 San Diego 705 10-1 18-tie 15 Arizona 593 8-1 20 16 Ohio State 493 7-2 14 17 Kansas State 469 10-1 22 18 Santa Clara 399 7-1 17 19 Purdue 353 11-0 NR 20 Texas A&M 315 7-4 15 21 Saint Mary's (Calif.) 303 8-2 23 22 Brigham Young 279 7-0 NR 23 Texas 225 6-2 18-tie 24 Kansas 154 10-1 NR 25 California 153 7-2 21 Others receiving points and listed on two or more ballots: Tennessee 143, LSU 88, Long Beach State 74, Ohio 65, UC Santa Barbara 23, Loyola Marymount 16, Utah 14, Pepperdine 8, Nevada 3.