Ducks Tabbed No. 10 and No. 12 in National Polls #3

EUGENE – After last weekend’s 5-0 trip to Palm Springs, the University of Oregon softball team (13-3) claimed its fifth straight top-10 national ranking in Tuesday’s third edition of the regular season.

Dropping a spot in both the NFCA and USA Softball editions, No. 10/12 UO was one of four top-10 ranked teams in the Pac-12 this week with a pair of fellow WCWS returnees - No. 3/3 Arizona State and No. 8/7 California - and No. 12/10 UCLA.

Overall, Oregon was one of eight league members that ranked top 25 nationally this week with No. 16/15 Stanford, No. 18/18 Washington, No. 17/21 Arizona and No. 24/- Oregon State.

For comparison's sake, a complete list of Pac-12 rankings from the previous edition follows: No. 3/3 Arizona State, No. 8/8 California, No. 9/11 Oregon, No. 14/19 Arizona, No. 16/13 UCLA, No. 20/17 Stanford, No. 22/22 Washington and Oregon State (received votes).

Six other Duck non-conference foes in 2013 were also tabbed top 25 this week by the NFCA/USA Softball – No. 2/1 Oklahoma, No. 4/4 Florida, No. 11/11 LSU, No. 14/14 Michigan, No. 20/22 Hawai’i and No. -/25 Nebraska.

Overall in the top five, the top two teams stayed the same - No. 1/2 Alabama and No. 2/1 Oklahoma. No. 4/4 Florida and No. 5/8 Texas each improved a spot in the NFCA edition, while No. 9/5 Texas A&M jumped four spots in the USA Softball version.

Oregon has now been ranked for 44 straight editions by USA Softball and 39 straight polls by the NFCA. UO's week-by-week USA SB/ NFCA rankings in that stretch follow: 2013 – Preseason 6/5, 2/12 9/7, 2/19 11/9, 2/26 12/10. 2012 - Preseason 11th/16th, 2/14 19/19, 2/21 21/19, 2/28 18/18, 3/6 15/18; 3/13 14/17; 3/20 15/17; 3/27 16/17; 4/3 17/18; 4/10 15/19; 4/17 14/18; 4/25 15/16; 5/2 12/13; 5/9 12/13; 5/16 12/12; 6/12 5/5. 2011 - Preseason 14th/14th, 2/15 14th/14th, 2/22 13th/13th, 3/2 13th/13th, 3/9 15th/14th, 3/16 16th/15th, 3/23 15th/16th, 3/30 14th/15th, 4/5 15th/16th, 4/12 17th/17th, 4/19 19th/21th, 4/26 16th/19th, 5/3 12th/17th, 5/10 11th/14th, 5/17 11th/12th, 6/15 14th/15th. 2010 - 3/8 25th/-; 3/15 25th/-; 3/22 21st/-; 3/29 21st/ RV; 4/5 17th/ RV; 4/12 17th/23rd; 4/19 18th/20th; 4/26 19th/20th; 5/3 20th/22nd; 5/5 20th/22nd; 5/10 21st-t/22nd; 6/15 14th/14th.

More information on the USA Softball and NFCA polls are available at the http://www.usasoftball.com/folders.asp?uid=6632 and https://nfca.org/index.php/component/nfca/?top25=1&list=1&year=2012&pdiv=div1 URL addresses.

Last weekend in the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic, Oregon staked its fifth perfect tourney mark under fourth-year head coach Mike White. The Ducks scored wins over NCAA returnee San Diego State (3-1) and UNLV (4-2) on Sunday, Cal Poly (2-1) and Nebraska (11-2 (6 innings)) on Saturday, and Virginia on Friday (13-0 (5 innings)).

This week, the Ducks look ahead to six games in the Citrus Classic in Orlando. UO faces No. 11/11 LSU (14-2) and Long Island (2-12) on Friday, Boston College (3-2) and Temple (1-3) on Saturday, and No. 14/14 Michigan (10-3) and James Madison (7-3).

NATIONAL POLLS #3 (2/26)

USA Today/NFCA Division I Top 25 Poll
https://nfca.org/index.php/polls

Rk    Team    Record    Totals    Prev
1    Alabama (20)    16-0    764    1
*2    Oklahoma (11)    15-0    755    2
*3    Arizona State    16-0    712    3
*4    Florida    16-1    661    5
5    Texas    16-1    611    6
6    Missouri    9-1    587    7
7    Tennessee    13-2    582    4
*8    California    11-2    559    8
9    Texas A&M    17-0    549    10
>10    Oregon    13-3    514    9
*11    LSU    14-2    470    11
*12    UCLA    13-1    439    16
13    Louisiana Lafayette    12-2    416    12
14    Michigan    10-3    369    15
15    Louisville    12-2    313    18
*16    Stanford    14-3    298    20
*17    Arizona    10-5    238    14
*18    Washington    10-5    215    22
19    Kentucky    11-3    210    21
20    Hawai'i    8-4    200    19
21    Tulsa    11-4    166    24
22    Baylor    15-2    139    25
23    Georgia    7-6    134    13
*24    Oregon State    13-3    76    RV
25    Florida State    9-6    43    23

Others Receiving Votes: South Alabama (19), Virginia Tech (13), USF (9), North Carolina (7), Ohio State (3), Illinois State (3), *James Madison (1).

Dropped Out: #17 USF (6-8)

Parenthesis denotes first place votes.

-The USA Today/NFCA Division I Top 25 Poll is voted on by NCAA Division I head coaches representing each conference. First-place votes are in parentheses.

* Denotes Duck opponents in 2013

ESPN.com/USA Softball Collegiate Top 25
http://www.usasoftball.com/folders.asp?uid=7248

Rk    Team    Record    Totals    Prev
* 1.    Oklahoma (18)    15-0    498    1
2.    Alabama (2)    16-0    480    2
*3.    Arizona State    16-0    462    3
*4.    Florida    16-1    405    5
5.    Texas A&M    17-0    385    9
6.    Missouri    9-1    379    7
*7.    California    11-2    376    8
8.    Texas    16-1    367    6
9.    Tennessee    13-2    359    4
*10.    UCLA    13-1    342    13
*11.    LSU    14-2    317    10
>12.    Oregon    14-3    293    11
13.    Louisiana-Lafayette    12-2    241    12
*14.    Michigan    10-3    232    15
*15.    Stanford    14-3    209    17
16.    Louisville    12-2    187    18
17.    Kentucky    11-3    174    20
*18.    Washington    10-5    150    22
19.    Tulsa    11-4    118    24
20.    Baylor    15-2    102    25
*21.    Arizona    10-5    101    19
22.    Hawaii    8-4    91    21
23.    Virginia Tech    11-1    58    RV
24.    Georgia    7-6    43    16
*25.    Nebraska    11-4    31    RV

Others receiving votes: Florida State (27), South Alabama (16), South Florida (12), Syracuse (12), Oregon State (12), Georgia Tech (5), Northwestern (4), Notre Dame (3), Ohio State (2), SC Upstate (2), North Carolina (1), Iowa (1), Florida Gulf Coast (1), Kennesaw State (1)

New to Poll: Virginia Tech, Nebraska
Dropped Out: South Florida, Florida State

Parenthesis denotes first place votes.

* Denotes Duck opponents in 2013

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