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UCLA Poll Watch: Men's Volleyball Spikes at #2

UCLA Men's Volleyball climbs to the second spot in the national polls after beating three top-15 teams last week.

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It's been a rough week for Bruins basketball. On Sunday night, a disjointed performance by UCLA Women's basketball led to its first Pac-12 loss of the season. Worse yet, the defeat came at the hands of the Trojans.

Three days later, Steve Alford's Bruins produced a lackluster defensive effort that resulted in an ugly 14 point loss to our crosstown rivals. Two losses to Southern Cal in the space of four days is an awfully painful way to start the week.

Thankfully our men's volleyball team looks set to compete for a national title this season. Although Coach Speraw has a young team, it made a statement on its season-opening east coast road trip with wins over #14 George Mason, #6 Ohio State, and #10 Penn State. The Bruins not only picked up three good wins and valuable experience against top teams, Coach Speraw also managed to give several of his bench players significant playing time. The fact that the Bruins were able to defeat the Buckeyes and the Nittany Lions without super sophomore JT Hatch on the court shows the depth of talent that Coach Speraw has developed in his squad.

A pair of home wins over the Arizona schools was not enough to lift our men's basketball team back into the top-25. Of course, that was before the Bruins lost to the Trojans, so it seems highly probable that UCLA will be even further adrift of the top-25 in next week's polls. Only one Pac-12 team (#17 Arizona) earned a spot in the AP Poll this week.

UCLA Women's Basketball started last week with an impressive 71-51 win over #11 Oregon State before dropping their Sunday game against Southern Cal. As a result, Coach Close's Bruins fell only two spots in each of this week's polls. Three Pac-12 teams (#10 Arizona State, #11 Oregon State, and #12 Stanford) are ahead of UCLA in this week's AP Poll, while #25 USC debuts in the poll after its win over the Bruins.

Both of UCLA's tennis teams are in the top-15 in the preseason ITA rankings. UCLA Women's Tennis debuts at #9 in the initial ITA rankings of 2016, while the men start at #14. Among Pac-12 schools, only Southern Cal at #8 is ranked higher than UCLA in men's tennis. On the women's side, three Pac-12 schools are ranked ahead of the Bruins: #2 USC, #6 California, and #8 Stanford.

Men's Basketball

Last Week: UCLA defeated #7 Arizona 87-84, and defeated Arizona State 81-74.

Associated Press Poll (January 11, 2016)
RANK TEAM RECORD POINTS PREVIOUS
1 Kansas (63) 14-1 1,621 1
2 Oklahoma (1) 13-1 1,551 2
3 Maryland 15-1 1,472 3
4 Michigan State (1) 16-1 1,446 5
5 North Carolina 15-2 1,371 6
6 Villanova 14-2 1,246 11
7 Xavier 14-1 1,200 10
8 Miami (Fla.) 13-1 1,139 12
9 Duke 14-2 1,100 14
10 SMU 15-0 1,040 15
11 West Virginia 14-1 867 17
12 Providence 14-2 862 8
13 Virginia 12-3 818 4
14 Kentucky 12-3 698 9
15 Texas A&M 13-2 668 21
16 Iowa 12-3 656 19
17 Iowa State 12-3 555 13
18 Arizona 13-3 537 7
19 South Carolina 15-0 527 22
20 Pittsburgh 14-1 334 24
21 Louisville 13-3 330 16
22 Baylor 12-3 325 NR
23 Butler 12-4 302 18
24 Purdue 14-3 145 20
25 Gonzaga 13-3 101 26


UCLA (11-6, 2-2) received 21 points.

USA Today Coaches Poll (January 11, 2016)
RANK TEAM RECORD POINTS PREVIOUS
1 Kansas (32) 14-1 800 2
2 Oklahoma 13-1 743 1
3 Maryland 15-1 742 3
4 Michigan State 16-1 694 5
5 North Carolina 15-2 673 7
6 Duke 14-2 596 10
7 Villanova 14-2 557 13
8 Xavier 14-1 555 12
9 Miami (FL) 13-1 551 11
10 West Virginia 14-1 477 15
11 Virginia 12-3 426 4
12 Providence 14-2 400 9
13 Kentucky 12-3 393 8
14 Texas A&M 13-2 383 17
15 South Carolina 15-0 361 20
16 Arizona 13-3 337 6
17 Pittsburgh 14-1 263 21
18 Iowa State 12-3 253 14
19 Iowa 12-3 226 23
20 Louisville 13-3 205 16
21 Gonzaga 13-3 173 22
22 Baylor 12-3 156 25
23 Butler 12-4 147 19
24 Purdue 14-3 122 18
25 Indiana 14-3 38 NR

UCLA (11-6, 2-2) received 12 points.

Women's Basketball

Last Week: UCLA defeated #11 Oregon State 71-51, and lost to Southern Cal 71-68.

Associated Press Poll (January 11, 2016)
RANK TEAM RECORD POINTS PREVIOUS
1 UConn (32) 14-0 800 1
2 South Carolina 15-0 765 2
3 Notre Dame 15-1 735 3
4 Texas 15-0 706 4
5 Ohio State 12-3 640 5
6 Baylor 16-1 632 6
7 Mississippi State 16-1 621 7
8 Maryland 14-2 592 8
9 Kentucky 13-1 543 10
10 Arizona State 13-3 502 14
11 Stanford 13-3 447 9
12 Oregon State 12-3 406 11
13 Tennessee 11-4 371 12
14 Oklahoma 12-3 358 17
15 Texas A&M 12-4 301 13
16 Florida State 11-4 293 19
17 UCLA 11-4 287 15
18 Michigan State 12-3 265 23
19 South Florida 10-4 234 22
20 Florida 14-2 134 NR
21 Miami (Fla.) 15-2 121 NR
22 Duke 12-5 116 18
23 Louisville 12-5 111 NR
24 Missouri 14-2 99 20
25 Southern Cal 14-2 69 NR

USA Today Coaches Poll (January 11, 2016)
RANK TEAM RECORD POINTS PREVIOUS
1 Connecticut (32) 14-0 800 1
2 South Carolina 15-0 768 2
3 Notre Dame 15-1 732 3
4 Texas 15-0 708 4
5 Ohio State 12-3 655 5
6 Mississippi State 16-1 625 6
7 Baylor 16-1 618 7
8 Maryland 14-2 587 8
9 Kentucky 13-1 528 9
10 Oregon State 12-3 481 12
11 Texas A&M 12-4 454 10
12 Stanford 13-3 436 13
13 Arizona State 13-3 419 14
14 Florida State 12-4 370 15
15 Tennessee 11-4 322 11
16 South Florida 10-4 278 18
17 Oklahoma 12-3 263 19
18 Michigan State 12-3 259 22
19 Duke 12-5 175 16
20 Miami (FL) 15-2 150 NR
21 Florida 14-2 112 NR
22 Louisville 12-5 96 NR
23 UCLA 11-4 93 21
24 Northwestern 12-4 81 17
25 Duquesne 15-1 65 24
25 DePaul 12-6 65 NR


Men's Volleyball

Last Week: UCLA defeated #14 George Mason 3-0, defeated #6 Ohio State 3-1, and defeated #10 Penn State 3-2.

AVCA Coaches Preseason Poll (January 11, 2016)
RANK TEAM POINTS RECORD PREVIOUS
1 BYU (20) 300 2-0 1
2 UCLA 262 3-0 5
3 Long Beach State 256 3-0 4
4 UC Irvine 226 1-1 2
5 Hawai'i 203 3-0 7
6 Loyola-Chicago 193 1-2 3
7 Ohio State 175 2-2 6
8 UC Santa Barbara 158 4-1 9
9 Lewis 148 3-1 8
10 Penn State 144 1-1 10
11 Stanford 104 2-0 13
12 Pepperdine 101 1-0 11
13 Southern California 34 0-2 12
14 CSUN 32 4-0 NR
15 Ball State 19 1-1 T-14


Men's Tennis

Last Week: UCLA was not in action.

ITA Preseason Ranking (January 6, 2016)

RANK TEAM 2014-15 FINAL RANK
1 Virginia 1
2 Oklahoma 2
3 TCU 4
4 Baylor 3
5 Texas A&M 5
6 Illinois 6
7 Georgia 8
8 USC 7
9 North Carolina 11
10 Ohio State 12
11 Wake Forest 13
12 Texas 9
13 Duke 10
14 UCLA 15
15 South Florida 16
16 Virginia Tech 18
17 Texas Tech 19
18 Columbia 14
19 Mississippi 17
20 Stanford 20
21 California 26
22 San Diego 22
23 Minnesota 21
24 Florida 25
25 Vanderbilt 24

Women's Tennis

Last Week: UCLA was not in action.

ITA Preseason Ranking (January 5, 2016)

RANK TEAM 2014-15 FINAL RANK
1 Vanderbilt 1
2 USC 2
3 Florida 6
4 North Carolina 4
4 Georgia 5
6 California 7
7 Virginia 9
8 Stanford 11
9 UCLA 3
10 Texas A&M 10
11 Baylor 8
12 Oklahoma State 12
13 Miami 15
14 Michigan 13
15 Alabama 14
16 Duke 19
17 Texas Tech 16
18 Ohio State 21
19 Pepperdine 22
20 Clemson 18
21 LSU 23
22 TCU 17
23 Georgia Tech 20
24 Kentucky 25
25 Mississippi 24

This Week In UCLA Sports

Wednesday, January 13

  • #5 UCLA Men's Volleyball vs. #14 George Mason in Fairfax, VA (4:00 PM PST)

Thursday, January 14

  • #5 UCLA Men's Volleyball vs. #6 Ohio State in University Park, PA (2:00 PM PST)
  • UCLA Men's Basketball vs. #7 Arizona at Pauley Pavilion (6:00 PM PST)

Friday, January 15

  • #5 UCLA Men's Volleyball vs. #10 Penn State in University Park, PA (4:30 PM PST)

Saturday, January 16

  • UCLA Men's Basketball vs. Arizona State at Pauley Pavilion (2:00 PM PST)

Sunday, January 17

  • #15 UCLA Women's Basketball vs. Southern California in Los Angeles, CA (6:00 PM PST)
  • #6 UCLA Gymnastics vs. #3 Alabama at Pauley Pavilion (2:00 PM PST)
Go BRUINS!