Tampa Volleyball Continues as the No. 5 Program

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Picking up its 20th win of the season on Saturday, the University of Tampa volleyball team continues as the No. 5 team in the nation in the latest release of the American Volleyball Coaches Association coaches' poll, announced Monday.

The Spartans are 20-4 this season and are coming off a 3-0 week where they defeated Saint Leo, Embry-Riddle and Rollins.

Jumping back to the No. 1 rank is perennial power Concordia, St. Paul, as previous No. 1 Ferris State dropped to a tie at fifth with Tampa after suffering its second loss of the season.

Southwest Minnesota State also moves two spots to the No. 2 team in Division II while fellow Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference teams Wayne State and Northern State are ranked No. 3 and No. 4, respectively.

Wheeling Jesuit and Rockhurst both retain their No. 7 and No. 8 rankings, respectively while Washburn moves up to the No. 9 team as per the AVCA. Rounding out the top-10 is No. 10 Minnesota-Duluth.

Regional foe and this weekend's opponent, Palm Beach Atlantic sits No. 14 while Florida Southern continues its skid after suffering a five-set loss to Nova Southeastern. The Mocs fall two places to No. 19 while the final regional foe, West Florida maintains its No. 23 rank in the latest AVCA poll.

Tampa has earned a ranking for 265 consecutive AVCA polling periods, a mark that ranks second only to No. 13 Central Missouri, as both are active program records. The Spartans hold the Division II record for most times ranked in the top 10 with 256 releases of the AVCA coaches' poll and have garnered a top-10 rank for 144 consecutive releases.

UT will continue conference play Tuesday, meeting the Eckerd College Tritons for a 7 p.m. road bout in the McArthur Center. Live stats will be made available through www.tampaspartans.com.

Click here for the complete AVCA Week 9 release

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