Sophomore Adrianna Stasiuk returned to action this weekend as a key contributor in the victories that sent Notre Dame up in the rankings.

Notre Dame Soars To #8 In AVCA Poll

Sept. 12, 2005

After knocking off #6 Florida and #8 USC en route to being the only unbeaten team in the UTSA Dome Rally over the weekend, the University of Notre Dame women’s volleyball (6-0) team jumped 11 spots to #8 in this week’s CSTV/AVCA Division I Coaches Poll, released on Monday by the American Volleyball Coaches Association. The ranking is the highest for the Irish since 1996 and is just one shy of the best listing in program history, while the 11-place rise matches the largest single-week ascension ever for any team in the poll.

ND lost the first game of the weekend and then rebounded to knock off the Women of Troy and then sweep both Oklahoma and the Gators. It was the first time in program history that the Irish took down a pair of top-10 teams in the same weekend, and ND had just three all-time wins against teams ranked in the top eight prior to the event. The UTSA Dome Rally featured a strong field of eight teams that entered the event with a 32-5 (.865) record this season, but Notre Dame was the only one to emerge unscathed. Four of the squads are currently in the national top 15.

The last time the Irish were ranked this high was Sept. 3, 1996, when they moved up one spot after going 3-0 during the opening weekend of the season. This is the third season that Notre Dame has cracked the national top 10, as the ’95 Irish also peaked at a program-high seventh on Sept. 19. This week’s ranking is the ninth top-10 listing ever for Notre Dame.

The only previous time that a team moved up more than 10 spots from one poll to the next in the same season came in 1996, when Brigham Young entered the NCAA tournament at 19th and finished eighth following an appearance in the quarterfinals. The two-poll jump of more than 17 spots (from unranked to eighth) by Notre Dame stands as the largest in the 24-year history of the AVCA poll. The Irish also had a hand in the previous record in that category, which saw the 1995 Oral Roberts team enter the NCAAs unranked before topping #18 Loyola Marymount and #11 Washington State in the opening two rounds to move to 19th. ORU then beat the 14th-ranked Irish and finished 10th after losing in the quarterfinals to #1 Stanford.

The Irish, now 6-0 including unbeaten in three matches against top-15 opponents, also have made by far the largest two-poll jump in program history, after being the second team outside of the top 25 in the preseason edition. The largest jump prior to this came at the start of the 2003 campaign, when ND was unranked to begin with, but moved to 21st after going 2-1 in the opening weekend – which included wins over #10 Arizona and Eastern Washington and a loss to #5 Pepperdine. A week later, ND stood 15th after beating Houston and Texas to win the Longhorn Classic. The previous best one-week movement for ND came in 1997, when an unranked Irish squad rose to 18th in the final poll after knocking off #18 Arkansas and then losing in four games to #4 Wisconsin in the NCAA round of 16.

Despite a 3-0 triumph over the Gators on Sunday – the first time Florida was swept in more than two years and the first time it lost 3-0 to a team other than USC since 2001 – Notre Dame came in two points behind the Gators in this week’s poll (1,061-1,059). In fact, five of the seven teams ahead of the Irish have already been defeated at least once. Notre Dame is also one of only three teams in Division I to own three or more victories over teams currently in the top 20 of the AVCA poll, joining #1 Nebraska (five) and #4 Penn State (three, though two came against the same team, #6 Hawai’i). A pair of higher-ranked teams do not have any wins against the current top 20, as Minnesota’s highest-ranked triumph came vs. #22 Kansas State and #2 Washington – which is receiving three first-place votes – has not even taken on a team in the current top 25 in its initial seven contests of the season.

The top five of the poll was unchanged this week – Nebraska (8-0, 57 first-place votes), Washington (7-0), Stanford (8-1), Penn State (6-2), and Minnesota (6-1) – while Hawai’i (5-3) and Florida (7-1) switched with each other for sixth and seventh places, respectively. Rounding out the top 10 are Louisville (6-0) and Missouri (6-0). The Cardinals and Irish combine to make this the first time ever that two BIG EAST Conference squads are both among the national top 10.

Since being ranked for the first time in the preseason of 1992, the Irish have been listed in the AVCA top 25 at some point in every season except for one (1999). In all, Notre Dame has been ranked in 122 of the 201 polls since then (61%). Only 20 schools have been ranked on more occasions than the Irish since the AVCA rankings debuted in 1982, and just 16 have been in more polls since the commencement of the 1992 campaign.

Five of Notre Dame’s 2005 opponents – #7 Florida, #9 Louisville, #12 Southern California, #16 Tennessee, and #18 Texas – are also in the top 20, while Louisiana State is receiving votes (listed 33rd).

The volleyball team is one of four Irish squads currently listed among the top 10 in the nation, joining women’s soccer (1st entering last week), women’s cross country (3rd), and football (10th). Notre Dame’s team sports have gotten off to a torrid pace this fall, combining for a 16-2 (.889) record, including 8-2 against nationally-ranked foes (4-1 vs. top-10 teams).

Voting by 60 Division I head coaches – including Notre Dame’s Debbie Brown – determines the CSTV/AVCA Division I Coaches Top 25.

Notre Dame was scheduled to take part in the Nokia Sugar Bowl Classic in New Orleans, La., this weekend, facing Louisiana State on Friday and Tulane on Saturday. In light of Hurricane Katrina, the Irish will not make that trip, but a finalized plan has not yet been made, as to whether ND will play any matches at all and where they would be contested. Check back to the official site of Irish athletics, und.com, this week for more information.