Volleyball Ranked No. 20 in USA Today/CSTV Preseason Poll
August 10, 2004 | Women's Volleyball
Aug. 10, 2004
The University of Louisville volleyball team was ranked No. 20 by the American Volleyball Coaches Association in its 2004 USA Today/CSTV preseason top 25 poll. Louisville is the highest ranked team representing Conference USA with the ranking. Defending national champion USC maintained the top spot entering the 2004 season after the Women of Troy received 56 of 65 first-place votes. The Cardinals were the only other team in the poll to be picked in the same spot where it ended the 2003 season. The Cardinals are the defending C-USA Tournament champion and finished 20th in the final AVCA poll of 2003 after advancing to the second round of the NCAA tournament. U of L won its opening round with a 3-0 sweep of Notre Dame before falling to Illinois. Louisville returns a pair of All-C-USA Tournament members from last season in outside hitters Bing Sun and Lena Ustymenko. The duo also earned AVCA honorable mention All-America honors.
Rank School Total '03 Record / Rank 1 USC (56) 1,596 35-0 1 2 Nebraska (5) 1,417 28-5 13 3 UCLA 1,386 24-9 5 4 Florida 1,360 36-2 2 5 Minnesota (1) 1,318 26-11 4 6 Stanford (2) 1,230 25-7 10 7 Washington 1,170 23-9 9 8 Penn State 1,160 31-5 7 9 Pepperdine 1,091 27-3 6 10 California (1) 1,082 25-7 12 11 Colorado State 997 30-5 14 12 Georgia Tech 931 34-4 8 13 Hawai'i 718 36-2 3 14 Kansas State 658 30-5 11 15 Texas A&M 552 23-10 16 16 UCSB 546 19-9 22 17 Arizona 500 17-15 NR 18 Loyola Marymount 438 26-7 17 19 Illinois 426 26-7 15 20 Louisville 304 25-6 20 21 Northern Iowa 272 28-6 18 22 Santa Clara 271 20-11 19 23 Wisconsin 260 22-11 21 24 Utah 161 22-9 23 25 Notre Dame 136 23-7 24Others receiving points and listed on two or more ballots: Maryland 112, Cincinnati 110, Long Beach State 108, San Diego 105, Texas 88, Kansas 85, Missouri 78, Michigan 68, Colorado 59, Brigham Young 58, Michigan State 45, UC Irvine 39, Pittsburgh 34, Florida A&M 27, Ohio 20, Arkansas 18, Wichita State 13, Fresno State 12, Tennessee 11, North Carolina 8, Ohio State 7, Pacific 7, Western Michigan 6, Ball State 3, Florida State 2.
