Week 5 Wrap-Up; A Shake-Up!

The top four teams — Penn St., Texas, Washington and Hawai’i — all win.  But the next three teams all lose this weekend.  Finally, some drama in women’s college volleyball!

No. 5 Florida suffered their first loss at the hands of 15th-ranked Kentucky Friday night.  It was a five-setter, and it was at home, breaking a streak of 21 consecutive victories at the O’Connell Center dating back to ’04.  The SEC should be classified as a mid-major, but Kentucky should get some serious burn as a result of their road victory: a Top-1o appearance and some recognition as the Gators’ main competition in the conference.

It may be a subtle difference, but #6 Michigan probably had the most damaging loss of any team in the AVCA Top 25.  They did lose to 12th-ranked Illinois Saturday, but it was at Keen Arena in Ann Arbor.  Worst of all, the Wolverines blew a two-set lead.  With the Gophers winning, there appears, at least at this moment, a three-way coterie to see who is wingwoman for the Lady Lions.

Also on Saturday night, No. 7 Oregon went into Gill Coliseum and dropped a five-set decision to their bitter rivals in the Civil War, Oregon St.  The crowd of 3,576 had nothing better to do in Corvallis, Ore.  — trust me, I’ve been there — and so they turned out in record numbers to see the Beavers upset the Ducks.

Even more turmoil in the Pac-10.  The Bay Area schools traveled down to SoCal this weekend, and the team that went 2-o is 11th-ranked Stanford.  The Cardinal notched impressive road wins at UCLA (in four sets) and USC (in three, although the second set went 35-33).  Meanwhile, the team that beat Stanford last weekend, ninth-ranked Cal, lost both games in L.A. (to the Women Of Troy in five sets Friday and to the Bruins in four sets Saturday).  There still looks to be a jumble among the Golden State teams to see who gets to serve at the foot of Washington, still the class of the Pac-10.  (Meanwhile, once-promising Arizona have now dropped three in a row, the latest being a sweep at Seattle.)

The ACC, like the SEC a mid-major (maybe worse), is now a very jumbled mess thanks to Florida St.’s home loss Friday evening to Georgia Tech.  The five-set match was close; all three sets Yellow Jackets won they won by two points only.

Of the mid-major, non-BCS conference teams residing in the lower reaches of the AVCA, both#20 San Diego and #25 Wichita St. lost in conference play.  The Toreros lost for the first time in nine contests at Pepperdine in straight sets Saturday afternoon; the Shockers lost at Creighton Friday night in four.  And #22 Long Beach St. choked away a two-set lead before closing out UC-Santa Barbara in five Friday night.

Speculating about the next poll: With Nos. 5-7 losing as well as #9, Minnesota might stand to gain the most because they’re next in line.  And the next team behind them to win all their games this week is Nebraska.  But what about Stanford for sweeping the L.A. schools?  Or Illinois for their upset of Michigan?  Or Kentucky for their upset of Florida?  Meanwhile, look for the likes of Baylor, Saint Louis and Michigan St. to move up the poll, and possibly for Texas A&M to enter it.