Despite suffering its first loss of the season, Nebraska dropped just one spot in the latest AVCA Coaches Poll.
The Huskers came in at No. 3 this week after completing the nonconference schedule with an 8-1 record. The Huskers fell at home to Stanford on Tuesday before bouncing back to sweep another ranked opponent on the road in Kentucky.
Dani Busboom Kelly’s Louisville Cardinals (9-1) jumped ahead of the Huskers and received one first-place vote after beating Kentucky in five and Stanford in four last week. Texas (8-0) received the other 63 first-place votes and remains at No. 1.
The Cardinal (5-3) jumped up four spots to No. 5 after beating the Huskers. The Wildcats (5-4) dropped two spots to No. 15 after losing to both the Huskers and the Cardinals. Creighton and Pepperdine swapped spots with the Waves (9-2) climbing to No. 17 following a four-set win over Minnesota and the Bluejays (8-3) falling to No. 22 after losing in five to Rice.
Last week wasn’t a great one for the Big Ten as a whole.
Wisconsin dropped two spots to No. 6 after dropping a five-setter to Florida. The Badgers set a new attendance record in that match as 16,833 fans attended the match at the Kohl Center, breaking the regular season volleyball-only record Nebraska and Creighton set at CHI Health Center Omaha earlier this season.
Ohio State (4-4) fell two spots to No. 7 after dropping its nonconference finale at Pittsburgh in three sets. Seven of the Buckeyes’ eight nonconference matches were against ranked teams.
Minnesota dropped two spots as well to No. 8 after losing to the Waves.
Penn State (11-0) was the lone Big Ten team to move up, climbing two spots to No. 9 after a 3-0 weekend against unranked mid-major opponents. Purdue dropped one spot to No. 11 despite a pair of sweeps over unranked mid-major teams.
Illinois (5-5) dropped out of the top 25 and fell below two other Big Ten teams in the others receiving votes section, coming in at No. 31 after a 1-2 weekend including a loss to unranked Illinois State. Michigan (9-1) is No. 28 and Northwestern (11-1) is No. 29.
Nebraska will begin its Big Ten schedule on Friday at home against Michigan State.
Jacob Padilla has been writing for Hail Varsity since 2015. He covers football, volleyball men’s basketball and prep sports. He also co-hosts the Nebraska Preps Postgame and Nebraska Shootaround podcasts for the Hurrdat Media and Hail Varsity podcast networks. His love of basketball can best be described as an obsession and if you need to find him, he’s probably in a gym somewhere watching, coaching or playing hoops.
