placThe Minnesota volleyball and women's cross country teams posted the highest national rankings in school history in their respective polls Monday. The volleyball team moved up three spots to sixth place in the USA Today/AVCA Top 25, while the cross country team moved up five places to the eighth spot in the FinishLynx NCAA Division I Women's Poll.

The volleyball team defeated Purdue and Illinois last weekend to improve to 13-0 for the season. Minnesota has its best start in school history and is one win shy of setting another school record for consecutive victories. The 1978 team won 14 matches in a row. Minnesota is the highest-ranked team among Big Ten schools. The conference features six of its 11 members in this week's poll.

The women's cross country team won the Roy Griak Invitational for the first time since the Division I schools ran a separate race. The Gophers defeated seven nationally ranked teams on their home course, the Les Bolstad Cross Country Course. The Gophers have never been ranked higher than 12th previously.

The Minnesota volleyball team travels to 11th-ranked Penn State for a match Friday at 6:30 p.m. that will be broadcast live by WDGY AM-630. Penn State has won its last 87 matches at home, an NCAA record. The Gopher women's cross country team will run at the Northern Iowa Invitational on Friday at 4 p.m. The race will be run on the same course that will host the NCAA Midwest Regional on Nov. 11.

USA Today/AVCA Top 25 (Sept. 25, 2000) Rank School (1st-Place) Points Record Last Week 1. Nebraska (48) 1486 11-0 1 2. Hawai'i (10) 1446 10-0 2 3. Colorado State 1359 14-1 4 4. USC (2) 1328 9-0 5 5. UCLA 1231 9-3 7 6. Minnesota 1194 13-0 9 7. Pepperdine 1087 9-2 8 8. Arizona 1045 10-1 10 9. UC Santa Barbara 961 8-3 13 10. Wisconsin 925 12-1 14 11. Penn State 918 11-3 3 12. Florida 848 8-3 12 13. Long Beach State 806 8-3 6 14. BYU 691 9-3 15 15. Stanford 651 7-4 11 16. Utah 573 10-1 18 17. Pacific 547 8-3 16 18. Santa Clara 518 11-1 19 19. Ohio State 425 12-0 25 20. Michigan State 354 8-3 17 21. Notre Dame 269 9-4 24 22. Texas A&M 250 8-3 23 23. Loyola Marymount 121 9-3 22 24. Kansas State 114 8-3 20 25. Michigan 100 8-3 21 Others receiving 30 or more points: Texas Tech (85), Cal Poly (41), Missouri (32) 2000 FinishLynx Poll (Sept. 25, 2000) Rank School (1st-Place) Points Last Week 1. Stanford (9) 293 1 2. Wisconsin (2) 287 2 3. Kansas State (1) 277 3 4. Colorado 266 4 5. Brigham Young 255 6 6. North Carolina State 224 8 7. Georgetown 220 5 8. Minnesota 218 13 9. Boston College 209 10 10. Yale 183 NR 11. Michigan 180 14 12. Arizona State 166 7 13. Arkansas 165 9 14. Arizona 146 NR 15. Providence 133 11 16. Colorado State 117 15 17. Washington 98.5 18 18. Texas A&M 69.5 20 19. Villanova 59 19 20. UC-Irvine 56 22 21. Brown 50 17 22. South Florida 44 NR 23. Marquette 41 T23 24. Oregon 38 12 25. Ball State 31 NR Others receiving votes: Northern Arizona 24, Duke 17, Weber State 10, Boston University 8, Texas Christian 7, West Virginia 6, Toledo 1, Wake Forest 1.