LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Riding a 15-game winning streak, Florida is the No. 1 team for the second straight week in the USA Today/NFCA Division I Top 25 Poll, announced Tuesday by the Association.
The Gators (47-4) garnered all but three first-place votes, gathering a total of 29 and 797 points after picking up four wins over nationally-ranked squads. UF defeated in-state foe and then-No. 10 Florida State, 5-0 in a mid-week contest. They rolled into the weekend putting three SEC wins on the board against No. 25 Texas A&M (7-3 / 9-5 / 9-1). During their streak, the Gators are 10-0 against top-25 squads.
Oregon, which picked up the other three first-place votes and 771 points, swept a late season non-conference top-10 series from then No. 9 Louisiana Lafayette. The Ducks (41-5) completed their Pac-12 series sweep of Stanford on Monday with a 6-3 victory on The Farm and then hosted the Ragin’ Cajuns. Oregon defeated Louisiana convincingly in the first two games (8-0 / 10-2) before coming out on top in a 2-1 eight-inning nailbiter in the finale.
Michigan (730 points), Alabama (674 points) and Oklahoma (645 points) all shifted up one to complete the top-five. The Wolverines (45-6) took care of Big Ten business defeating Michigan State 4-3 and sweeping a league road series at Maryland in similar fashion as Oregon. They topped the Terrapins by eight runs in the first two games (8-0 / 10-2) and escaped with a 1-0 win in game three in College Park.
The Crimson Tide (38-11) went 3-1 turning back Troy 5-2 and taking two-of-three in SEC action against Tennessee (2-3 / 3-1 / 10-3), while the Sooners (42-7) posted a 4-1 week. OU trumped North Texas (6-3) to start the week and then went 3-1 in Big 12 road games. Following a 7-1 win at Oklahoma State, OUgrabbed the series from Kansas (2-4 in 8 inn. / 13-0 / 7-4) after dropping game one.
The reason for the shift in the top five was LSU suffering its first three-game losing streak of the season. The sixth-ranked Tigers (41-8) fell from No. 3 due to a 0-3 week in SEC play in which they dropped the series finale to Texas A&M (2-5) and the first two to then-No. 15 Missouri (2-7 / 2-10).
UCLA (40-8) and Auburn (44-8) remained at No. 7 and No. 8, while Florida State and Louisiana-Lafayette flip-flopped the final two spots in the top-10.
The Tigers (35-10), on a 10-game winning streak after Sunday’s win over LSU, moved up four more spots to No. 11 and have made a push of nine spots in just two weeks. Two programs moved up three positions in No. 16 Arizona (37-12) and No. 19 James Madison (40-6). The Dukes are Division I’s hottest team having won a school-record 31 games, last dropping a contest on March 8.
The USA Today/NFCA Division I Top 25 Poll is voted on by 32 NCAA Division I head coaches, one representing each conference. Current 2015 records are shown and first-place votes are in parentheses.
USA Today/NFCA Division I Softball Poll – April 28, 2015
Rank
Team
2015 Record
Totals
Prev. Rank
1
Florida (29)
47-4
797
1
2
Oregon (3)
41-5
771
2
3
Michigan
45-6
730
4
4
Alabama
38-11
674
5
5
Oklahoma
42-7
645
6
6
LSU
41-8
633
3
7
UCLA
40-8
607
7
8
Auburn
44-8
593
8
9
Florida State
40-12
518
10
10
Louisiana-Lafayette
34-8
466
9
11
Missouri
35-10
453
15
12
Tennessee
36-13
447
11
13
Minnesota
41-8
439
12
14
Georgia
39-13
409
14
15
UCF
44-6
390
13
16
Arizona
37-12
298
19
17
Baylor
34-12
288
16
18
California
34-13
256
20
19
James Madison
40-6
210
22
20
Washington
37-13
204
18
21
Kentucky
29-20
141
17
22
South Alabama
33-9
89
21
23
Notre Dame
39-12
82
24
24
Arizona State
30-18
66
23
25
Texas A&M
34-17
51
25
New to Poll: None
Dropped out: None
Others Receiving Votes: North Dakota State (44), Utah (36), Kansas (24), USC Upstate (21), CSUN (6), South Carolina (5), Texas (4), Western Kentucky (2), Hofstra