Western Kentucky is the new No. 1 in the VolleyballMag.com Mid-Major Poll. And it was hardly unanimous.
The Lady Toppers got four of the 10 first-place votes.
No. 2 BYU, which swept visiting San Diego — last week’s No. 1 — got one vote and USD got three votes.
No. 4 Creighton and No. 5 Hawai’i each got a first place vote from our panel of coaches (see list below) from around the country.
WKU has won 15 matches in a row, is 24-2 overall and 11-0 in Conference USA.
“It is tremendous to see our kids receive this recognition for the incredible consistency with which they have played this season,” WKU coach Travis Hudson said. We have only lost one match all season at full strength and that was to Michigan State in five sets (on Sept. 24).
“I’m very proud of our team and the season they have put together at this point.”
WKU’s only other loss was on Sept. 2 when when standout setter Jessica Lucas was out for a four-set defeat to Cal Poly.
Dayton, sporting the nation’s best record at 24-1, moved up a spot to No. 6.
The biggest jump of the week was by UNLV, which went from 22nd to No. 17.
UC Santa Barbara made it back into the poll at No. 25.
| Rank | School | Total Points Adjusted | First Place Votes Adjusted | Win/Loss Record | Previous Rank |
| 1 | Western Kentucky | 239 | 4 | 24-2 | 2 |
| 2 | BYU | 237 | 1 | 20-3 | 4 |
| 3 | San Diego | 230 | 3 | 19-3 | 1 |
| 4 | Creighton | 224 | 1 | 18-6 | 3 |
| 5 | Hawai’i | 208 | 1 | 16-5 | 5 |
| 6 | Dayton | 201 | 0 | 24-1 | 7 |
| 7 | Marquette | 180 | 0 | 20-5 | 8 |
| 8 | Missouri State | 178 | 0 | 19-7 | 10 |
| 9 | Long Beach State | 173 | 0 | 16-8 | 6 |
| 10 | Wichita State | 157 | 0 | 16-7 | 9 |
| 11 | Coastal Carolina | 148 | 0 | 19-4 | 11 |
| 12 | Northern Iowa | 140 | 0 | 18-8 | 12 |
| 13 | Arkansas State | 132 | 0 | 20-7 | 13 |
| 14 | Colorado State | 91 | 0 | 15-7 | 15 |
| 15 | Loyola Marymount | 88 | 0 | 15-9 | 14 |
| 16 | Miami, Ohio | 87 | 0 | 19-4 | 19 |
| T-17 | Southern Illinois | 67 | 0 | 18-9 | 16 |
| T-17 | UNLV | 67 | 0 | 21-3 | 22 |
| T-19 | Boise State | 66 | 0 | 19-6 | 20 |
| T-19 | Lipscomb | 66 | 0 | 16-7 | 21 |
| 21 | SMU | 57 | 0 | 18-6 | 24 |
| 22 | Cal Poly | 47 | 0 | 13-8 | 17 |
| 23 | South Dakota | 35 | 0 | 21-4 | 25 |
| 24 | UT San Antonio | 34 | 0 | 16-6 | 18 |
| 25 | UC Santa Barbara | 15 | 0 | 14-9 | NR |
Others receiving votes and listed on two or more ballots: Cincinnati 14, Northern Arizona 14, Northern Illinois 12, UCF 11, Cleveland State 4, Wyoming 4.
7 teams mentioned on only one ballot for a total of 24 combined points.
Dropped Out: Northern Arizona 23.
The VolleyballMag.com Mid-Major Poll includes all teams not in the “power-five” conferences, the ACC, SEC, Big Ten, Big 12 and Pac-12.
The pollsters
— Dan Conners, UC Davis
— Brian Doyon, Montana
— Greg Goral, Campbell University
— Kris Grunwald, UConn
— Justin Ingram, Southern Illinois University
— Steve Loeswick, North Florida
— Kent Miller, Saint Louis University
— Coley Pawlikowski, Stony Brook
— Jennifer Petrie, University of San Diego
— Dave Rehr, Arkansas State University
The conferences from which the teams will come:
— America East
— American Athletic
— Atlantic Sun
— Atlantic 10
— Big East
— Big Sky
— Big South
— Big West
— Colonial
— Conference USA
— Horizon League
— Ivy
— Metro Atlantic
— Mid-American
— Mid-Eastern
— Missouri Valley
— Mountain West
— Northeast
— Ohio Valley
— Patriot
— Southern— Southland
— Southwestern
— Summit
— Sun Belt
— West Coast
— Western Athletic
