Despite suffering a loss to then-No. 3 Arizona State, the Oregon Ducks (47-6-1, 18-2 Pac-12) remain the No. 1 team in the ESPN.com/USA Softball Collegiate Top 25 Poll the Amateur Softball Association (ASA)/USA Softball announced today.

Though their hold on the top spot loosened, the Ducks captured 17 first-place votes, while Alabama, Florida State and UCLA each received one top vote.

Click here to see the complete ESPN.com/USA Softball Collegiate Top 25 Poll

Oregon started the week with a pair of wins over Utah Valley (8-0, five innings and 5-4) before facing off against then-No. 3 Arizona State (43-8-1, 11-3 Pac-12) in the race to a regular season Pac-12 title.  A three-run rally in the sixth inning propelled the Sun Devils to a 4-2 victory in game one, but Oregon rebounded for a 12-2 (six inning) run-rule in game two to even the series.

Mother Nature prevented a conclusion for the weekend series, forcing the conclusion a 2-2 tie of a game that included two rain delays.  Arizona State remains No. 2 this week following the series split.

Following a series win over Stanford, UCLA (46-5, 17-4 Pac-12) held its No. 2 spot this week.  The Bruins stranded 14 runners on base in a 12-9 loss to Stanford in game one as the Cardinal offense exploded with 10 RBI off 12 hits but game two would not have the same outcome as Ally Carda (Elk Grove, Calif.) pitched a three-hit shutout in a UCLA 9-0 (five inning) win.  The Bruins clinched the series with a 5-2 victory in game three.

Despite taking a week off to prep for the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) tournament, Florida State (47-6, 24-3 ACC) holds onto their No. 4 rank and even garnered one first-place vote in this week’s poll.  The Seminoles will enter the ACC tournament as the No. 1 seed as they take on No. 8 seed Georgia Tech on Thursday, May 8.

Also holding onto their spot in the poll is Alabama (44-10, 19-5 SEC), who remains No. 5 after taking two games against then-No. 15 Missouri (41-15, 15-9 SEC).  The Tigers upset Alabama with an 8-6 loss in game one, but the Crimson Tide answered with a 3-1 victory in game two and clinched the series with a 2-0 win in their final matchup.  With the series win, Alabama heads into the Southeastern Conference (SEC) tournament as the No. 1 seed.

Rounding out the Top 10: Florida (45-10, 15-9 SEC) jumps one spot to No. 6 after sweeping Arkansas 8-3, 11-0 and 5-1 in their three-game series; No. 7 Tennessee (42-9, 17-7 SEC) also moved up one spot this week following their sweep of Ole Miss (11-6, 5-3 and 5-1); Washington (30-13, 10-9 Pac-12) rose two spots to No. 8 after a 2-1 outing against then-No. 8 Arizona who falls to No. 9 this week after losing to the Huskies 11-7 and 8-0 (five innings); and making their first top-ten appearance since week one, the defending National Champion Oklahoma Sooners (43-10, 14-2 Big 12) come in at No. 10 after sweeping Texas Tech 5-0, 5-1 and 13-0 (five innings) and capturing a 10-2 (five innings) win over Arkansas.

In other Top 25 news: Michigan (40-11, 18-5 Big 10) fell five spots to No. 11 after falling 9-3 and 6-5 (nine innings) to unranked Wisconsin.  Then-No. 18 Georgia (42-12, 15-9 SEC) swept last weeks-No. 11 Kentucky (41-14, 13-11 SEC) in a three game series where the Bulldogs captured 5-1, 4-1 and 3-1 wins over the Wildcats.

With the wins, Georgia jumped four spots to No. 14 this week while Kentucky fell four spots to No. 15.  No. 12 Louisiana-Lafayette (41-7-1, 19-1 Sun Belt) clinched the No. 1 spot in the Sun Belt Conference Championship Tournament with a three-game sweep of Louisiana-Monroe.  The Ragin’ Cajuns defeated ULM 8-6, 7-0 and 9-3 to clinch a two-game bye in the tournament.

Next week will be the final regular season poll of the 2014 NCAA Division I softball season. One final poll will be released on June 10 following the conclusion of the NCAA WCWS at the ASA Hall of Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City.

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 – Week 13 – May 6, 2014

 

Rank	Team	Record	Points	Previous Ranking
1.	Oregon (17)	47-6-1	497	1
2.	UCLA (1)	46-5	469	2
3.	Arizona State	43-8-1	462	3
4.	Florida State (1)	47-6	439	4
5.	Alabama (1)	44-10	424	5
6.	Florida	45-10	395	7
7.	Tennessee	42-9	380	9
8.	Washington	30-13	339	10
9.	Arizona	40-11	325	8
10.	Oklahoma	43-10	316	12
11.	Michigan	40-11	301	6
12.	Louisiana-Lafayette	47-7-1	291	13
13.	Missouri	41-15	241	15
14.	Georgia	42-12	226	18
15.	Kentucky	41-14	217	11
16.	Minnesota	38-9	216	14
17.	Baylor	41-12	201	17
18.	Nebraska	40-14	164	19
19.	Tulsa	47-7	142	16
20.	Notre Dame	37-10	94	22
21.	Auburn	38-16-1	77	20
22.	South Alabama	38-11	74	21
23.	LSU	34-21	70	23
24.	USC Upstate	44-5	56	24
25.	Texas A&M	35-20	22	25

 

Parenthesis denotes first place votes

New to Poll: None

Others receiving votes:  Wisconsin (20), DePaul (12), South Florida (7), Northwestern (6), Texas (6), Central Florida (6), Mississippi State (2), North Carolina State (2), Lipscomb (1)