After a clean sweep of the opening weekend, Nebraska dropped one spot to No. 2 in the first in-season AVCA Coaches Poll.
The Huskers went 3-0 at the Ameritas Players Challenge in Lincoln, sweeping Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Tulsa and Pepperdine while getting everyone on the roster some playing time.
However, Texas scored two wins over a top-10 team to leap-frog the Huskers, receiving 41 first-place votes to Nebraska’s 23. The Longhorns beat No. 7 Ohio State 3-0 and 3-1 in Columbus to open their season.
Minnesota moved up one spot to No. 4 after beating No. 16 Baylor in four sets and TCU in three. Wisconsin dropped from No. 3 to No. 6 after losing to Baylor in five and sweeping TCU. The Buckeyes dropped one spot to No. 8 after their 0-2 start against the Longhorns, rounding out the Big Ten teams in the top 10.
Purdue went 3-0 against unranked teams and moved up two spots to No. 11. Illinois fell to No. 9 Georgia Tech in three before bouncing back to beat Ole Miss in four and dropped two spots to No. 19. Penn State also dropped one spot to No. 21 after a 3-0 weekend against unranked teams.
Michigan is the lone Big Ten among others receiving votes, scoring 37 points to come in at 32nd after a 3-0 weekend against unranked teams.
Stanford leads Nebraska’s nonconference opponents after moving up to No. 12 following two sweeps against mid-major teams. Kentucky split its matches with a five-set loss to Marquette and dropped five spots to No. 16. Creighton moved up one spot to No. 17 after a 3-0 start to the season. The Pepperdine Waves received votes (enough to come in at 34th) after a 2-1 showing in Lincoln.
Nebraska will welcome Loyola Marymount and Ole Miss to Lincoln for week two.
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.
