After claiming their program’s first national championship at the 2014 NCAA Women’s College World Series (WCWS) in Oklahoma City, Florida was voted No. 1 in the final ESPN.com/USA Softball Collegiate Top 25 Poll of the 2014 season, the Amateur Softball Association (ASA) of America and USA Softball announced this week.

The Gators (55-12, 15-9 SEC), who held a top-10 spot in every regular season poll this year and spent five weeks at No. 1, swept all 20 first-place votes after a 10-1 performance in the post season, including a 5-0 campaign in Oklahoma City during the NCAA WCWS.

Click here to see the complete poll.

To advance to Oklahoma City, Florida first outscored its regional opponents 29-0 to advance to the Super Regional round. The Gators then took two-of-three from then-No. 9 Washington in the Supers, including 9-0 (five innings) and 8-0 (five innings) run rules to earn a coveted spot in the WCWS.

The Gators started their week in Oklahoma City with a commanding 11-0 (five inning) win over then-No. 17 Baylor (49-16, 13-5 Big 12) before posting a  4-0, five-inning shutout over then-No. 1 Oregon (56-9-1, 20-3-1 Pac-12).

In a Sunday rematch with Baylor, the Gators held on for a 6-3 win, punching their ticket to the Championship Series versus conference rivals, then-No. 5 Alabama (53-13, 19-5 SEC). It took Florida just two games to secure their first ever WCWS Championship as they knocked off the Crimson Tide 5-0 in game one and 6-3 in game two.

Alabama finished the season ranked No. 2 in the nation. En route to the final round in Oklahoma City, the Tide advanced out of the Regionals by beating SIU-Edwardsville 13-3 (five innings), then-No. 24 USC Upstate 7-1 and then-No. 21 South Alabama 3-0. Alabama then faced then-No. 20 Nebraska (44-18, 18-5 Big 10) in the Super Regionals and squeaked out back-to-back one-run victories, 6-5 (12 innings) and 2-1, to earn a trip back to Oklahoma City.

At the NCAA WCWS, Alabama topped then-No. 10 and defending National Champs Oklahoma (51-13, 16-2 Big 12) 6-2 on day one and then took consecutive 2-0 wins over then-No. 14 Kentucky (50-19, 13-11 SEC) and then-No. 1 Oregon to lock up a spot in the NCAA WCWS Championship Series.

Oregon finished the season at No. 3 following a WCWS run that included a 3-0 win against then-No. 3 Florida State (55-9, 24-3 ACC), the 4-0 loss against Florida and a 4-2 win over Oklahoma before being eliminated from the tournament by Alabama in a 2-0 loss.

Oklahoma finished the season at No. 4 after a 1-2 performance at the WCWS in which the Sooners fell to Alabama 2-6, defeated Louisiana-Lafayette (49-10-1, 19-1 Sun Belt)  3-1 and were eventually eliminated from the tournament, falling to Oregon 2-4.

Rounding out the Top 10 teams of the 2014 season are No. 5 Baylor, No. 6 Kentucky, No. 7 Florida State , No. 8 Louisiana-Lafayette, No. 9 UCLA (50-11, 19-5 Pac-12) and No. 10 Michigan (47-15, 18-5 Big 10).

USC Upstate (46-9, 22-2 A-Sun) fell out of the Top 25 this week following their elimination from the NCAA tournament during their Regional appearance. With their exit, DePaul (44-11, 18-1 Big East) entered the poll at No. 25 joined after taking Kentucky to an if-necessary game in their Regional contest.

The ESPN.com/USA Softball Collegiate Top 25 Poll is voted on by coaching representatives of 10 Division I Conferences in the 15 ASA/USA Softball Regions as well as members of the national and local media who consistently cover Division I Softball across the country.

 

ESPN.com/USA Softball Collegiate Top 25

2014 Season – Final – June 10, 2014

Rank	Team	Record	Points	Previous Ranking
1.	Florida (20)	55-12	500	6
2.	Alabama	53-13	480	5
3.	Oregon	56-9-1	456	1
4.	Oklahoma	51-13	419	10
5.	Baylor	49-16	411	17
6.	Kentucky	50-19	399	14
7.	Florida State	55-9	389	3
8.	Louisiana-Lafayette	49-10-1	372	12
9.	UCLA	52-8	327	2
10.	Michigan	47-15	290	13
11.	Tennessee	46-12	281	8
12.	Georgia	49-15	266	7
13.	Washington	37-15	253	9
T14.	Arizona	44-16	230	11
T14.	Minnesota	44-12	230	16
16.	Arizona State	46-12-1	224	4
17.	Nebraska	44-18	211	20
18.	Missouri	43-18	147	15
19.	Tulsa	53-9	121	18
20.	Notre Dame	41-13	98	19
21.	Auburn	42-19-1	81	22
22.	LSU	38-24	75	23
23.	South Alabama	42-14	56	21
24.	Wisconsin	36-20	39	25
25.	DePaul	44-11	31	RV

 

Parenthesis denotes first place votes.

New to Poll: DePaul (RV)

Dropped Out: USC Upstate (24)

Others receiving votes:  USC Upstate (29), South Florida (18), Wichita State (17), Northwestern (14), Texas A&M (14), James Madison (9), Texas (6), Mississippi State (2), North Carolina State (2), UCF (2), Louisville (1)