Penn State Women’s Volleyball Ranked No. 7 in Final 2019 Poll

Penn State women’s volleyball (27-6, 17-3) checked in at No. 7 in the final AVCA Division I Coaches Poll of the 2019 season, which was released Monday afternoon.

The Nittany Lions moved up one spot from their previous ranking of No. 8 prior to the NCAA Tournament.

Russ Rose’s squad is joined by fellow Big Ten representatives Wisconsin (No. 2), Minnesota (No. 4), and Nebraska (No. 5) in this week’s poll. The only other conference rival in the final rankings is No. 13 Purdue, although Michigan, which was last ranked No. 22, received 81 votes.

Stanford, the 2019 NCAA champion, tops the final rankings of the season. The Cardinal defeated Penn State with ease in the Elite Eight before sweeping Minnesota in the Final Four and busting out the brooms against Wisconsin to win it all. This is now the third time in the last four years Stanford has been crowned champion, which gave the Cardinal an NCAA-record nine national titles.

While it didn’t go the distance and win it all, Penn State had an objectively good postseason this time around. The Nittany Lions defeated Princeton, Towson, and Cincinnati before falling to Stanford in Rose’s 39th NCAA Tournament run. Regardless, getting the team’s 15 underclassmen valuable postseason experience will be huge moving forward.

Rankings aside, the Nittany Lions picked up an impressive slate of postseason honors following their successful season. Penn State crowned five AVCA All-Americans, Rose received his 16th Big Ten Coach of the Year award, and libero Kendall White was named Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year for the second straight season.