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With another week of games in the books, the AVCA released this week’s coaches’ poll, and Pitt moved up a spot:
1 BYU
— AVCA (@AVCAVolleyball) October 22, 2018
2 Stanford
3 Minnesota
4 Penn St
5 Pittsburgh
6 Illinois
7 Wisconsin
8 Texas
9 Nebraska
10 Creighton
11 Cal Poly
12 Michigan
13 Florida
14 Kentucky
15 Southern Calif
16 Oregon
17 Purdue
18 Marquette
19 Wash St
20 UCLA
21 Wash
22 Louisville
23 Arizona
24 Missouri
25 UCF
The Panthers had a strong week sweeping Notre Dame on Friday, and besting #22 Louisville after a ridiculous comback in the 4th set to win 3-1.
As Anson discussed after the Notre Dame game, Pitt continues to be underrated in the polls based on both Pitt’s resume and in comparison to some others teams, namely Penn State. Penn State has some great wins on their schedule, but have also been swept twice by teams above them, and also lost 3-1 to unranked Ohio State. Pitt’s RPI is significantly better ( 5 vs 14) so the numbers definitely like the Panthers more.
Pitt is getting some help from elsewhere, though, as Anson points out...
Some good news for Pitt volleyball as they're up a spot to #5 in latest Top 25 poll. But there's more as well. Cal Poly's only loss is to Pitt and they continue to rise (#11). And Louisville, which just lost to Pitt, dropped only one and is still in rankings (#22). That helps.
— Anson Whaley (@AnsonWhaley) October 22, 2018
All Pitt can do is keep winning, which will get tougher as they start their final stretch. 6 of their last 8 regular season games are on the road, including a rematch with Florida State who the Panthers beat earlier this season. In any case, Pitt remains in control of its own destiny to repeat as ACC Champions.