Here is my Power 10 after Week 3 of women’s college volleyball.
For the record, it is still very early in the season, and tough to gauge. There wasn’t much movement among my top four, but there were a few adjustments to the bottom three that anyone could argue.
1. Pittsburgh (Prev. 1)
Pitt remains at No. 1 with no reason to move down. The Panthers swept a ranked team in USC and look as solid as ever.
2. Stanford (Prev. 3)
No. 2 is an easy one. I moved Stanford up a spot after an impressive sweep of Texas on Sunday.
Kami Miner finished with a .340 hitting clip, including .448 in the third set. Elia Rubin and Jordyn Harvey led the offensive effort, while Sami Francis finished with five blocks. The Cardinal looked like a total unit.
The Cardinal appears to be back in tip-top shape and one of the best teams in the country.
3. Penn State (Prev. 2)
Even though Penn State swept both of their opponents last week, the Nittany Lions dropped to No. 3 strictly because of Stanford’s more impressive sweep over Texas.
The top 3 teams are interchangeable right now. However, be on the lookout for potential movement in the next rankings with Pitt and Penn State squaring off on Wednesday.
SCOREBOARD: Live scores and stats for every match
4. Louisville (Prev. 4)
Louisville stays put at No. 4 after surviving a five-set battle with Creighton to secure its second top-10 win of the season. After losing the third and fourth sets, Charitie Luper and the Cards responded in the fifth to shut down the comeback effort.
It’s a tough week for Louisville coming up, though, facing both Nebraska and Kentucky on the road.
5. Nebraska (Prev. 6)
Like Louisville, Nebraska also took down Creighton in five sets after going up 2-0. Bergen Reiley orchestrated a balanced offense with four players notching double-digit kills, led by Lindsay Krause with 17.
The Huskers have Stanford and Louisville this week, so expect much more chaos by next week’s rankings.
6. Purdue (Prev. 8)
The Boilermakers look really impressive to start the year and come in this week at No. 6. They handled Kentucky in four sets behind Eva Hudson’s season-high 20 kills, while hitting over .300. Taylor Anderson runs a great offense and this team is dangerous.
7. Creighton (Prev. 5)
After climbing from unranked to No. 5 last week, Creighton falls to No. 7 after two heartbreaking five-set losses to top-five teams. Wins matter, but with the amount of ranked matchups we have seen this early in the season, performance and eye test arguably matters more.
Creighton pushed two of the best teams in the country to their limits, coming back from a 2-0 deficit to force a fifth set in both contests.
8 & 9. Texas (Prev. 7) and Wisconsin (Prev. 10)
The bottom three is where you could argue pretty much anything.
Texas, Wisconsin, Kentucky and Minnesota all have three losses, but each has had a tough schedule and ranked wins under their belts. It is difficult to compare that to teams that have more wins, but against weaker opponents. I had this battle 20 times over before finalizing my bottom three.
I kept Texas and Wisconsin in for now. The Longhorns are over Wisconsin based on their head-to-head win. Both teams have a lot of work to do, but again, with tough early-season schedules, I believe their lineups will work out as the season continues.
Longhorns lose again: Read about how Stanford swept Texas
10. Georgia Tech (Prev. NR)
And at No. 10, I rewarded Georgia Tech for two top-15 wins over BYU and Florida and strong performances to start the season.
Is Kansas close to the top 10?
Kansas is undefeated at 7-0 and has a ranked win against Marquette so far this season, but I’m still waiting on some more ranked wins to move them up.
This could be sooner rather than later with both Purdue and Creighton coming into town this week.
