Things look a little different in this second VolleyballMag Super 16 Media Poll of the season, but the top teams remained the season, unbeaten Pittsburgh at No. 1 and Nebraska at No. 2.
After that, a few teams stayed the same but there was quite a bit of shuffling. As pollster Ed Strong said, it ” gets really messy around 7-11.”
We rank 16 teams because that’s how many get seeded in the NCAA Tournament and get to play at home the first two rounds. Voter comments follow.
Rank, Team, Points, First-Place Votes, Previous ranking
1. Pittsburgh (192 points, 12 first-place votes, 1)
2. Nebraska (179, 2)
3. Penn State (161, 5)
4. Louisville (160, 4)
5. Stanford (134, 3)
6. Creighton (132, 6)
7. Texas (118, 8)
8. Kansas (103, 9)
9. Wisconsin (89, 7)
10. Purdue (88, 10)
11. Oregon (80, 11)
12. Minnesota (57, 16)
13. Kentucky (42, 13)
14. Arizona State (22, 14)
15. Baylor (19, NR)
16. SMU (16, NR)
Also receiving votes: Florida, Florida State, Georgia Tech, USC, Auburn, TCU, North Carolina, Washington
The voters
Lincoln Arneal (@Lincoln_VB) — Nebraska beat writer for Huskers Illustrated and co-host of the Volleyball State podcast
Abby Benton (@numberonevolleyball) — played at DII Catawba and DIII William Peace and has 54K Instagram followers and more than 116K on TikTok
Michella Chester (@michellachester) — THE volleyball voice of NCAA.com
Shelby Coppedge (@shelbycoppedge) — ESPN analyst, former Texas A&M-Corpus Christi DS
Emily Ehman @emilyehman) — Big Ten Network, ESPN, Volleyball World TV analyst; former Northwestern DS
Lee Feinswog (@VBMagazine) — editor of VolleyballMag
Daniel Gillman (@DanielGillman/@SixRotations) — host of Six Rotations for the AVCA, national play-by-play for multiple sports
Sam Gore (@sambgore) — veteran broadcaster/studio host who does ESPN volleyball play-by-play, host of the Fifth Set during the NCAA Tournament
Mick Haley (@Michaelhaley6) — ESPN analyst, former national-championship coach at Texas and USC and 2000 USA Olympic coach
Amy Pauly (@acpauly10) — Head coach of the Orlando Valkyries of the Pro Volleyball Federation and the team’s vice-president of volleyball operations; former assistant coach at USC, head coach at UAB; libero at Alabama
Dennis Punzel (@DennisPunzel) — Wisconsin beat writer for the Wisconsin State Journal, author of Point! Wisconsin
Ed Strong (@VBMagazine) — VolleyballMag super Tweeter
Voter comments
Arneal: The top seven teams stayed the same with a minor flip of Louisville and Stanford after the Cardinals swept the Cardinal. Pitt continues to be impressive and string together wins. Oregon and Kansas move up after taking care of business. However, it was a jumbled mess starting from No. 10 through the first four out. Nearly every team in this range suffered a loss this past week. Some were against teams ahead of them in the rankings (like Purdue, Minnesota and TCU), but Kentucky had a head-scratcher against Auburn and Georgia Tech got double swept.
Punzel: Pitt is an easy No. 1 again with a gap between the next two, Nebraska and Penn State. Could make the case for Penn State at 2 because its loss is better but I think Nebraska has better wins. It’s close. A lot of balancing good losses and good wins the rest of the way, with conflicting results like with Minnesota and Purdue. My new teams this week are Baylor and SMU. We’ll see how that holds up.
Gillman: Massive wins for Louisville and Penn State bump them up for me, with Pitt still reigning. FSU, SMU, Auburn, and Washington deserve more recognition as well!
Benton: With quite a few upsets involving teams on the cusp, I added SMU and Baylor and removed Arizona State and Georgia Tech. Minnesota rises after their win against Wisconsin, but not as high as Purdue who beat the Gophers in 5. Despite Penn State’s scary match against Michigan State, I’m keeping them in my top three after their impressive sweep against Purdue. Finally, I moved Louisville above Stanford to round out my top five. And Pitt is still No. 1, of course.
Ehman: Another helluva week. Stanford fell to 5, passed up by Penn State and Louisville for me after getting swept by the Cardinals. Minnesota at 12 for me because of the Wisconsin win and every single loss being in five. SMU slid in at 16 after sweeping Georgia Tech to rack up three ranked wins.
Strong: I feel very comfortable with Pitt/Nebraska/Penn State/Louisville in that order at the top. Gets really messy around 7-11. I have Kansas atop that group for now. Impressed by Baylor this week against an Arizona State team I think highly of. SMU just keeps impressing and earns their way onto my ballot. Was very tempted to put Florida State in final spot, but the head-to-head win by Auburn plus its nice victory over Kentucky gives them the nod for now. Besides FSU, I also considered Washington and Dayton.
Feinswog: I think I watch too much volleyball and it all mushes into one jumbled mess. The head-to-head outcomes make it confusing and seeing some of the better teams so good and then so underwhelming … certainly Pitt is 1 and Nebraska is 1A and there’s quite a gap to No. 3, which I’m not sure isn’t Creighton at this point.
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