Aug. 13, 2001
Tucson, Ariz.- The defending Pac-10 co-champion Arizona women's volleyball team will head into the 2001 with high expectations. The Wildcats have been voted sixth in the preseason edition of the USA Today/AVCA Coaches Poll. It is the highest preseason ranking for the Wildcats in school history, bettering the rank of 10th just a season ago.
Arizona, which finished the 2000 season ranked fifth in the country, returns four starters from its 28-5, Elite Eight team, including All-American and Pac-10 Player of the Year Dana Burkholder and All-Pac-10 Honorable Mention selections Lisa Rutledge and Jill Talbot.
The Cats are slated to face six teams ranked in the preseason top 25 and four additional teams that received votes this season. The defending national champion Nebraska Cornhuskers are the top ranked team in the preseason followed by Pac-10 conference foe USC. Penn State, Wisconsin and Hawai'i round out the top five, respectively. Seventh-ranked UCLA and 10th-ranked Stanford puts four Pac-10 schools in the top 10 of the preseason poll, the most of any conference in the nation. Only the Big Ten with Minnesota (no.15) and Ohio State (no. 16) joining Wisconsin and Penn State have as many teams in the preseason top 25.
The Arizona volleyball team will begin its season with a trip to Gainesville, Fla., to participate in ninth-ranked Florida's SunTrust Invitational Aug. 31-Sept. 1. The Cats will face South Florida, who received 17 votes in the preseason poll, and Marshall on Aug. 31, and the ninth-ranked Gators on Sept. 1.
2001 USA Today/AVCA Preseason Coaches Poll
Rank School (First-Place Votes) Points 2000 Record Final Poll
1 Nebraska (63) 1623 34-0 1
2 USC (2) 1472 29-3 4
3 Penn State 1374 30-6 6
4 Wisconsin 1320 33-5 2
5 Hawai'i 1261 31-2 3
6 Arizona 1178 28-5 5
7 UCLA 1098 25-8 7
8 Long Beach State 1091 24-8 14
9 Florida 1084 29-5 12
10 Stanford 1017 19-12 19
11 BYU 989 26-7 13
12 Pacific 950 28-4 8
13 UC Santa Barbara 882 26-8 9
14 Colorado State 866 32-5 10
15 Minnesota 724 30-4 11
16 Ohio State 638 26-7 15
17 Pepperdine 606 24-7 18
18 Texas A&M 481 20-9 23
19 Kansas State 354 22-9 16
20 Notre Dame 278 26-7 21
21 Utah 254 23-8 20
22 Santa Clara 232 27-5 17
23 South Carolina 172 22-7 NR
24 Loyola Marymount 155 20-9 25
25 Georgia Tech 123 25-8 NR
Others receiving points and listed on two or more ballots: Louisville (112), Missouri (109), Colorado (108), Washington State (102), Michigan State (88), North Carolina (62), Northern Iowa (58), Utah State (33), Michigan (26), Texas Tech (20), University of San Diego (18), South Florida (17), Tennessee (16), Arizona State (15), Baylor (14), Duke (13), Arkansas (12), Florida State (11), Western Michigan (9), Fairfield (8), Cal Poly (8), Northern Arizona (5), Wisconsin-Milwaukee (4), San Jose State (3)
Italics Denote a 2001 Arizona Opponent
Arizona's Preseason Rankings (Since 1982)
Year Ranking
1982 NR
1983 NR
1984 NR
1985 NR
1986 13th
1987 NR
1988 NR
1989 11th
1990 14th
1991 NR
1992 NR
1993 NR
1994 16th
1995 NR
1996 NR
1997 20th
1998 NR
1999 15th
2000 10th
2001 6th
