4-6-10 USA Softball Poll

For Immediate Release: 04/06/10

Pac-10 loss not enough to drop Washington from No. 1 spot

OKLAHOMA CITY — It will take more than Danielle Lawrie’s first loss of the season to dethrone Washington. The Huskies, who started their reign on June 9, remain top ranked in the ESPN.com/USA Softball poll despite dropping the first game of conference play Thursday.

No. 4 UCLA (27-6, 1-2 Pac-10) handed 2009 USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year Lawrie her first loss of the season in the teams’ opening game of Pac-10 action. After the 1-0 loss, the Huskies (30-3, 2-1 Pac-10) regrouped for 3-1 and 7-2 victories over UCLA.

Michigan (26-5, 3-0 Big Ten) took one first-place vote after a sweep of Wisconsin but it was not enough to move the Wolverines out of the third spot. Arizona (30-4, 2-1 Pac-10) holds at No. 2 despite being run-ruled by No. 10 Arizona State (32-6, 1-2 Pac-10) for the first time in school history Friday. The Wildcats returned the favorite with a 14-2  run-rule win Saturday.

Rounding out the Top 5 is Florida (27-4, 9-2 SEC), which swept now No. 14 LSU (29-7, 8-3 SEC) over the weekend to improve from last week’s No. 9 spot. Before Washington took over the top spot following the program’s first championship at the Women’s College World Series, Florida had held the No. 1 spot for 10 consecutive weeks. The Gators lost the top spot when they finished second to the Huskies in Oklahoma City.

Other rankings include: Georgia Tech (32-5, 8-1 ACC) at No. 6; Alabama (27-9, 10-4 SEC) at No. 7; and Stanford (27-5, 2-1 Pac-10) at No. 9. Missouri (25-6, 1-3 Big 12) faced one of the biggest drops of the week, settling into the No. 8 position after a weekend sweep from now No. 11 Oklahoma State (32-7, 4-0 Big 12). Georgia also dropped from No. 8 to No. 12 after dropping two to Arkansas.

Match-ups to watch this week include Arizona at Washington, Arizona State at UCLA, Georgia at Georgia Tech; LSU at Alabama; and No. 13 Oklahoma (29-8, 3-1 Big 12) at Oklahoma State.

ESPN.com/USA Softball Collegiate Top 25

April 6 – Week of March 29 – April 4

Parenthesis Denotes first place votes.

Dropped Out: BYU
New to Poll: UMASS

Others receiving votes:  BYU (19), Arkansas (17), Hawaii (17), DePaul (12), Notre Dame (11), Louisville (9), San Diego State (8), Fordham (7), ULL (2), Hofstra (2), Kentucky (2), Texas Tech (1).