Women’s Volleyball 13th Nationally in Final USA Today/AVCA Poll – Ohio State Buckeyes
1/8/2003 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Jan. 8, 2003
COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Ohio State women’s volleyball team was ranked 13th in the Final 2002 USA TODAY/American Volleyball Coaches Association Poll announced Monday. The Buckeyes finished the season with a 21-11 overall record and was fourth (13-7) in the Big Ten Conference, one match out of second place.
Ohio State opened the 2002 season ranked ninth in the preseason poll but a series of injuries dropped the Buckeyes out of the poll for five weeks during the middle of the season. A healthier team in November, Ohio State defeated No. 13 Penn State and No. 6 Minnesota, finishing the regular season with eight consecutive victories. Selected as an at-large participant to the NCAA Championship, the Buckeyes defeated Robert Morris (3-0) and Louisville (3-0) in first and second round matches, respectively. Ohio State then faced defending national champion Stanford, at Stanford without senior setter Katie Virtue (St. Charles, Ill.) who had injured her knee the day before in practice. OSU lost 0-3 (24-30, 25-30, 27-30) to the Cardinal to end the season.
The Buckeyes lose three seniors from the 2002 team. They include Virtue, middle blocker Suzie Stiling (Sr., Glenview, Ill.) and outside hitter Shelly Draeger (Sr., Milwaukee, Wis.). OSU’s top returning player for 2003 is outside hitter Stacey Gordon (So., Oshawa, Ontario), a first team AVCA All-American and the Big Ten Player of the Year.
USA TODAY/AVCA Division I Coaches Top 25 2002 FINAL POLL
Rank School Total 2002 Last (First-Place Votes) Points Record Week 1 USC (65) 1625 31-1 1 2 Stanford 1558 32-5 3 3 Hawai’i 1466 34-2 2 4 Florida 1452 34-3 5 5 Nebraska 1372 31-2 4 6 Pepperdine 1264 26-7 8 7 Washington State 1184 24-8 10 8 UC Santa Barbara 1130 30-3 7 9 Northern Iowa 1116 34-3 6 10 Arizona 1066 20-12 12 11 Minnesota 1014 32-6 9 12 North Carolina 892 32-4 11 13 Ohio State 811 21-11 13 14 Long Beach State 645 28-4 14 15 UCLA 570 20-14 17 16 Penn State 557 25-8 15 17 Georgia Tech 509 33-6 16 18 Wisconsin 455 24-9 18 19 Santa Clara 350 24-7 19 20 Missouri 333 26-8 20 21 Kansas State 291 21-9 22 22 Michigan State 288 21-12 23 23 Miami, Fla. 265 27-6 24 24 Eastern Washington 251 29-2 21 25 Temple 196 29-7 25
Others receiving points and listed on two or more ballots: California (104), Washington (83), South Carolina (66), Texas (43), San Diego (42), South Florida (38), Utah (24), Arkansas (21), Pacific (14), Texas A&M (10), Arizona State (7), Louisville (6).
Three teams mentioned on only one ballot for a total of 7 combined points
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