Ducks Jump to Season-High 11th in USA Softball Poll
EUGENE – Winners of seven of its last nine games, the University of Oregon softball team (37-13, 9-9) continued its ascent up the national polls released Tuesday.
UO was tabbed 11th and 14th, respectively, in the USA Softball and NFCA editions, an improvement of one and three spots, respectively.
Among this week's two editions, nine Duck foes were ranked top 25 (USA SB / NFCA) - Arizona State (1/1), Alabama (4/4), California (5/6), Arizona (10/10), Stanford (12/11), Washington (14/15), UCLA (15/12), Texas A&M (19/18) and Louisiana-Lafayette (25/25).
Two other Duck opponents – BYU and Pacific - received vote(s) in at least one poll.
Overall in both editions, Arizona State ranked first in both polls for the third straight week after it swept Washington in Seattle last weekend.
Michigan held steady at No. 2 after it beat both Minnesota and Ohio State twice; Florida jumped to No.3 after it swept the previous No. 3, Tennessee; Alabama improved to fourth after it swept Ole Miss to win its second straight SEC title; No. 5 Texas split with Missouri and lost to Texas A&M, and the other No. 5, California, swept Oregon State in Corvallis.
Oregon has now been ranked for 25 straight editions by USA Softball and 19 straight polls by the NFCA. UO's week-by-week NFCA/USA SB rankings this year follow: 5/3 (12/17), 4/26 (16/19), 4/19 (19/21), 4/12 (17/17), 4/5 (15/16), 3/30 (14/15), 3/23 (15/16), 3/16 (16/15), 3/9 (15/14), 3/2 (13/13), 2/22 (13/13), 2/15 (14/14), Preseason (14/14).
More information on the NFCA and USA Softball polls is available at the http://nfca.org/top25/index.php?cat_id=1 and http://www.usasoftball.com/news.asp?uid=5398 URL addresses.
This week, UO is tied for fourth place in the Pac-10, a game ahead of 11-time national champion and No. 12 UCLA. In this weekend's final series of the regular season, the two teams meet at Howe Field for single games each day that start Thursday, May 12 at 6 p.m., Friday, May 13 at 6 p.m. and Saturday, May 13 at 11:30 a.m.
Among the current 12-year run of 21-game league slates, UO sports its most Pac-10 wins (9) since 2003 and ’04 when Oregon won 10 games when second-year head coach Mike White
served as a Duck assistant coach.
UO also won 10 games twice in 28-game Pac-10 seasons in 1998 and ’99, while its all-time high (13) came in the 20-game schedule in ’89 – the same year it advanced to the Women’s World Series.
Last weekend at home, Oregon went 2-1 vs. No. 10 Stanford to end a 10-game series losing streak and take its first season series vs. the Cardinal since 2007. The Bruins went 1-2 at home against Arizona in meetings between last year’s national champion and runner-up, respectively.
Among this weekend's promotions, at Thursday's 'Lights Out at Howe', all faculty and staff receive free admission with their UO ID card.
At Friday's 'Take a Kid to the Game', kids receive $1 admission when they wear their Kidsports jersey or t-shirt, while local Bi-Mart stores also have vouchers for $2 admission.
For Saturday's 'Senior Night' regular season finale, senior citizens receive admission for only $1, and vouchers will be available at the Howe Field ticket window for $5 off reserved baseball tickets for the 2 p.m. game that day.
The softball world will then tune into the 64-team NCAA Tournament selection show on Sunday, May 15 at 7 p.m. PT on ESPN-U.
ESPN.com/USA Softball Collegiate Top 25
http://www.usasoftball.com/folders.asp?uid=3208
Rk Team Record Totals Prev
*1. Arizona State (20) 48-5 500 1
2. Michigan 49-4 475 2
3. Florida 47-8 449 6
*4. Alabama 45-7 447 5
*5. California 37-9 418 7
6. Missouri 43-7 387 8
7. Texas 45-7 374 4
8. Tennessee 44-10 370 3
9. Georgia 44-10 325 9
*10. Arizona 39-14 308 13
>11. Oregon 37-13 299 12
*12. Stanford 37-13 284 10
13. Oklahoma 37-16 260 15
*14. Washington 32-13 240 11
*15. UCLA 32-15 206 14
16. Georgia Tech 44-9 188 17
17. Baylor 39-12 179 19
18. Notre Dame 44-8 151 21
*19. Texas A&M 39-18 138 22
20. Kentucky 36-13 117 16
21. LSU 39-18 101 23
22. Oklahoma State 37-14 83 18
23. Nebraska 35-12 64 20
24. Auburn 38-16 42 RV
*25. ULL 45-9 36 25
Others Receiving Votes: Indiana (25); Houston (17); Tulsa (6); Syracuse (5); *BYU (3); Texas Tech (2)
Dropped Out: Indiana
New to Poll: Auburn
Parenthesis denotes first place votes.
* Denotes Duck opponents in 2011
USA Today/NFCA Division I Top 25 Poll
http://nfca.org/top25/index.php?cat_id=1
Rk Team Record Totals Prev
*1 Arizona St. (30) 48-5 750 1
2 Michigan 49-4 717 3
3 Florida 47-8 692 4
*4 Alabama 45-7 655 6
5 Texas 45-7 611 3
*6 California 36-9 576 8
7 Tennessee 44-10 565 5
8 Georgia 44-10 536 7
9 Missouri 43-7 525 9
*10 Arizona 39-14 481 11
*11 Stanford 38-12 424 10
*12 UCLA 32-15 400 12
13 Oklahoma 37-13 389 15
>14 Oregon 37-13 365 17
*15 Washington 32-13 355 13
16 Nebraska 35-12 277 14
17 Baylor 39-12 257 20
*18 Texas A&M 38-13 213 22
19 Georgia Tech 44-9 197 19
20 Oklahoma St. 37-14 187 16
21 LSU 38-15 174 21
22 Kentucky 36-13 141 18
23 Auburn 38-16 105 23
24 Notre Dame 44-8 82 25
*25 La.-Lafayette 45-9 63 24
Others Receiving Votes: Tulsa 4, *Pacific (CA) 3, Syracuse 3, Houston 1, Indiana 1
Dropped Out: None
-The USA Today/NFCA Division I Top 25 Poll is voted on by NCAA Division I head coaches representing each conference. First-place votes are in parentheses.
* Denotes Duck opponents in 2011
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