Huskers Finish Third in Final Poll

Lincoln ? The University of Nebraska volleyball team finished third in the final Bison/AVCA Coaches poll released Tuesday. NU finished with 1,377 points in voting by the 60 coaches in the poll, finishing only behind Penn State (1,500) and Stanford (1,430).

The Huskers, who were picked seventh in the preseason poll, climbed from fourth to third in the final ranking following their five-set win over No. 5 Washington in the regional final and the national semifinal loss to No. 1 Penn State. The Huskers were the only team to take a set from the national champion Nittany Lions and went a combined 3-2 against the other top-five teams in the poll.

The Huskers have not finished in the top five of the final AVCA poll in each of the past five years and reached the national semifinals five times in John Cook’s nine seasons, including three of the last four years.

The 2008 senior class of Amanda Gates, Jordan Larson and Rachel Schwartz finished their career with a 127-8 record, four Big 12 titles and two trips to the national championship match.

The Huskers return four starters from this year’s national semifinalist squad, including All-Americans Sydney Anderson and Tara Mueller and All-region selection Kori Cooper.

Bison/AVCA Division I Coaches Top 25 Poll 2008 Final Poll: December 23, 2008<?xml:namespace prefix="o" ns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"?>

 

Rank

School (First-Place Votes)

Total Points

2008 Record

Last Week

1

<?xml:namespace prefix="st1" ns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"?>Penn State (60)

1500

38-0

1

2

Stanford

1430

31-4

2

3

Nebraska

1377

31-3

4

4

Texas

1333

29-4

3

5

Washington

1257

27-5

5

6

California

1177

26-7

8

7

Hawai’i

1152

31-4

6

8

UCLA

1036

22-11

9

9

Oregon

972

25-9

7

10

Florida

927

27-4

11

11

Illinois

822

26-8

14

12

Iowa State

777

22-13

NR

13

Southern California

702

17-12

12

14

Minnesota

674

27-7

10

15

Purdue

651

26-9

17

16

Utah

599

26-6

18

17

Michigan

573

26-9

19

18

Wichita State

514

30-2

13

19

San Diego

422

23-5

15

20

Kansas State

351

24-8

16

21

Saint Louis

313

29-5

21

22

Kentucky

218

26-6

20

23

Long Beach State

188

26-6

24

24

Colorado State

164

23-7

22

25

Santa Clara

101

18-10

NR

 

Others Receiving Votes and appearing on two or more ballots: Western Michigan 67; New Mexico State 66; Pepperdine 43; Tulane 23; Middle Tennessee 15; UAB 12; Cincinnati 9; San Francisco 8; Texas A&M 8; Duke 7; Clemson 5; Western Kentucky 2