Volleyball ranked No. 17 in final week of regular season
By Wes Mayberry
ADA — The Ohio Northern volleyball team is ranked No. 17 nationally in this week's American Volleyball Coaches Association Poll, which was released on Tuesday.
The Polar Bears received 760 points in the poll.
ONU is down three spots after being ranked No. 14 the past three weeks.
The Polar Bears (18-5 overall, 6-1 OAC) went 1-4 last week in a tough stretch of schedule featuring games against three teams in the top six of this week's poll in No. 3 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (Calif.), No. 4 Calvin (Mich.) and No. 6 Hope (Mich.).
Johns Hopkins (Md.) is the top-ranked team in this week's poll with 2,248 points and 89 first-place votes.
Trinity (Texas) is second with 2,078 points while Claremont-Mudd-Scripps is third with 2,016 points.
There are two Ohio Athletic Conference schools in the poll for the fourth straight week, as Otterbein (20-3 overall) is ranked No. 23 with 300 points, moving down three spots from last week.
Ohio Northern and Otterbein are set to face off on Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the ONU Sports Center in Ada.
The Polar Bears will close out their regular season on Saturday with a home match against Mount Union at 1 p.m.
ONU, Otterbein and Mount Union are all currently tied atop the OAC standings with matching 6-1 records.
AVCA Coaches Poll
Oct. 26, 2021
| Rank |
School (First Place Votes) | Total Points |
2021 |
Last Week |
| 1. | Johns Hopkins (Md.) (89) | 2248 | 25-0 | 1 |
| 2. | Trinity (Tex.) | 2078 | 26-2 | 3 |
| 3. | Calremont-Mudd-Scripps (Calif.) | 2016 | 22-1 | 2 |
| 4. | Calvin (Mich.) | 1963 | 24-2 | 6 |
| 5. | Wartburg (Iowa) (1) | 1894 | 24-0 | 5 |
| 6. | Hope (Mich.) | 1803 | 20-3 | 4 |
| 7. | Colorado College | 1672 | 24-3 | 7 |
| 8. | Wisconsin-Whitewater | 1608 | 23-1 | 9 |
| 9. | Juniata (Pa.) | 1496 | 23-1 | 10 |
| 10. | Wisconsin-Eau Claire | 1394 | 25-3 | 11 |
| 11. | Emory (Ga.) | 1317 | 19-3 | 12 |
| 12. | NYU | 1235 | 20-1 | 13 |
| 13. | Mary Hardin-Baylor (Tex.) | 1193 | 22-1 | 8 |
| 14. | Berry (Ga.) | 1045 | 19-2 | 15 |
| 15. | Northwestern (Minn.) | 982 | 25-3 | 17 |
| 16. | Southwestern (Tex.) | 870 | 20-3 | 16 |
| 17. | Ohio Northern | 760 | 18-5 | 14 |
| 18. | UC Santa Cruz (Calif.) | 675 | 18-2 | 19 |
| 19. | MIT (Mass.) | 559 | 22-2 | 18 |
| 20. | Bethel (Minn.) | 513 | 20-4 | 23 |
| 21. | Chicago (Ill.) | 424 | 14-8 | 22 |
| 22. | Tufts (Mass.) | 343 | 15-4 | 24 |
| 23. | Otterbein | 300 | 20-3 | 20 |
| 24. | Wisconsin-Stevens Point | 249 | 23-6 | 21 |
| 25. | Gustavus Adolphus (Minn.) | 194 | 22-5 | 25 |
Others receiving votes and listed on two or more ballots: Wittenberg 52; Wesleyan (Conn.) 37; Washington-St. Louis 36; Bowdoin 34; Whitworth 34; Concordia (Wisc.) 33; Middlebury 23; RIT 19; Susquehanna 17; Denison 15; Carthage 12; Amherst 11; Millikin 11; Wisconsin-La Crosse 11; Babson 7; Stevens 5; Eastern 3.