An unbeaten week that included victories over in-state rival Oregon State and California helped Oregon (40-5) remain the unanimous choice at No. 1 in the latest USA Today/NFCA Division I softball poll.

The Ducks reaped all 32 possible first-place votes following an overpowering effort that witnessed UO outscore its league foes by a combined total of 49-6.

UCLA (39-4) held steady in the second slot after rolling past Cal State Northridge (8-0 in 5 inn.) and sweeping a three-game set from Oregon State (8-4, 9-1 in 6 inn., 10-8).

Three straight road wins at then-No. 21 Texas A&M helped Florida (40-8) jump from fifth to third, while a 1-0 loss to then-No. 12 Minnesota, as part of a 3-1 week, likely proved the culprit as Michigan (36-7) dropped one position to No. 4. Arizona State (39-7) split two hard-fought match-ups versus then-No. 11 Washington (W 3-1, L 2-3 in 10 inn.) to advance a single spot and round out the top five.

Florida State (44-6) took advantage of several teams’ missteps in front of them, making the largest positive move in the top 10 by leaping from ninth to No. 6 after rolling through five Atlantic Coast Conference contests against Pittsburgh and Syracuse.

Despite suffering a 6-2 mid-week loss to nationally ranked archrival Auburn, Alabama (39-8) utilized wins over Georgia Southern and North Carolina to hold firm at seventh. A series defeat to a suddenly red-hot Mississippi State squad caused Tennessee (36-8) to plummet four spots to eighth. After going 2-1 against Arkansas, Kentucky (38-9) dropped a single position to No. 9, while idle Arizona (34-9) remained 10th.

With no exits from this week’s rankings, Mississippi State came the closest to cracking the poll with 31 total points. DePaul, LSU, USF, James Madison, Houston, Virginia Tech, Wisconsin, IPFW and Long Beach State rounded out the list of “Others Receiving Votes.

The USA Today/NFCA Division I Top 25 Poll is voted on by 32 NCAA Division I head coaches, one representing each conference. Current 2014 records are shown, first-place votes are in parentheses.

 

USA Today/NFCA Division I Softball Poll – Week 11 – April 22, 2014

Rank	Team	2014 Record	Totals	Last Poll Rank
1	Oregon (32)	40-5	800	1
2	UCLA	39-4	768	2
3	Florida	40-8	713	5
4	Michigan	36-7	709	3
5	Arizona State	39-7	646	6
6	Florida State	44-6	633	9
7	Alabama	39-8	603	7
8	Tennessee	36-8	599	4
9	Kentucky	38-9	537	8
10	Arizona	34-9	507	10
11	Washington	25-12	472	11
12	Minnesota	33-8	411	12
13	Georgia	38-9	383	15
14	Baylor	32-10	364	14
15	Missouri	35-12	339	13
16	Louisiana Lafayette	33-7-1	324	17
17	Oklahoma	34-10	315	16
18	Tulsa	41-5	303	18
19	Nebraska	33-13	213	20
20	South Alabama	34-9	189	19
21	Notre Dame	29-9	159	22
22	Auburn	33-14-1	105	23
23	Texas A&M	29-17	95	21
24	USC Upstate	40-5	77	24
25	Northwestern	27-11	55	25

Dropped Out:  None

Others Receiving Votes:  Mississippi State (31), DePaul (23), LSU (8), USF (6), James Madison (5), Houston (2), Virginia Tech (2), Wisconsin (2), IPFW (1), Long Beach State (1).