LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Oregon will carry the No. 1 ranking into the postseason as the final regular season rankings in the USA Today/NFCA Division I Top 25 Poll were announced Tuesday by the Association.
The Ducks (46-6) garnered 19 first place votes and 787 points after they concluded their season with a series win at Arizona. Oregon earned the outright Pac-12 title by taking two-of-three at Arizona last weekend. The Ducks took games one and three by the scores of 3-0 and 15-7.
The Gators (50-6) remained at No. 2 after going 1-1 in the SEC tournament, defeating RV South Carolina (10-1) and falling to tourney runner-up No. 10 Tennessee (1-2). UF, which won the SEC regular season, grabbed the other 13 first-place votes and 777 points. It became the first of two DI programs to reach the 50-win plateau this season.
Big Ten regular season and tournament champion Michigan continued at the third spot as it rolled through the Big Ten tournament. The Wolverines (51-6) defeated Penn State (16-1), Northwestern (9-0) and Nebraska (6-1) to claim their ninth tournament crown and extend their winning streak to 20 games.
By virtue of a run to its first SEC tournament championship, Auburn leaped three spots to No. 4. Not only did the Tigers (49-9) win the tournament for the first time, they were making their first appearance in the championship game. Auburn knocked off No. 13 Missouri (9-0) and No. 4 Alabama (5-2) to reach the title game and then used a seventh inning rally to send it to extra innings and a walk-off ninth inning double by Carlee Wallace secured the Tigers’ SEC crown.
Alabama (42-12) dropped a spot to No. 5 going 1-1 at the SEC tournament, defeating No. 13 Missouri 9-0 before falling to No. 4 Auburn in the semifinals.
Also dropping spots after Auburn leap-frogged to No. 4 were No. 6 Oklahoma and No. 7 UCLA. The Sooners were rained out, while UCLA dropped two of three at No. 24 Arizona State in the regular season Pac-12 finale.
LSU (44-11) and ACC tournament champion Florida State (45-12) remained at No. 8 and 9 respectively. Tennessee entered the top 10 after its four-day run to the SEC championship game. The Lady Vols (42-14) played in four tightly-contested and exciting games with three decided by one run and the other by two. UT defeated Kentucky (5-4), host and No. 8 LSU (7-5) and No. 2 Florida (2-1) before falling in nine innings to No. 4 Auburn (6-5).
Kentucky dropped out of the poll for the first time this season, making way for newcomer North Dakota State (43-9). The Bison won their third straight Summit League crown to enter the poll for the first time in program history.
The road to the Women’s College World Series begins this weekend with 16 regionals at host sites, starting on Thursday, May 14 with the Oregon Regional in Eugene, where the Ducks are the No. 2 overall seed. The final 15 four-team regionals begin on Friday, May 15.
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 – May 12, 2015
Rank
Team
2015 Record
Totals
Prev. Rank
1
Oregon (19)
46-6
787
1
2
Florida (13)
50-6
777
2
3
Michigan
51-6
733
3
4
Auburn
49-9
696
7
5
Alabama
42-12
655
4
6
Oklahoma
45-7
628
5
7
UCLA
45-10
577
6
8
LSU
44-11
571
8
9
Florida State
42-12
551
9
10
Tennessee
42-14
540
11
11
Louisiana Lafayette
39-9
468
10
12
Missouri
39-14
427
13
13
UCF
48-7
412
15
14
Georgia
40-14
384
14
15
Minnesota
46-9
366
12
16
Arizona
38-17
306
17
17
James Madison
47-8
271
18
18
Baylor
38-15
244
16
19
California
38-16
234
19
20
Washington
40-15
180
20
21
Notre Dame
40-13
151
21
22
South Alabama
38-11
130
23
23
Arizona State
34-20
91
24
24
Texas A&M
38-18
52
22
25
North Dakota State
43-9
43
RV
New to Poll: No. 25 North Dakota State
Dropped out: No. 25 Kentucky
Others Receiving Votes: Texas (28), Utah (21), Kentucky (19), USC Upstate (14), Western Kentucky (11), Hofstra (9), Kansas (3), CSUN (2), Fresno State (1).