OU Softball Soars To No. 6

March 4, 2003

Norman, Okla. - Oklahoma softball rose to No. 6 in the latest ESPN.com/USA Softball Collegiate Top 25 poll as announced today by the Amateur Softball Association, the National Governing Body of Softball in the United States.

The University of Oklahoma made the biggest move in the poll, jumping five spots to No. 6 after an impressive weekend showing in Tempe, Ariz. The Sooners swept No. 10 Arizona State in three games and defeated UC-Riverside twice to go 5-0 in the ASU Tournament.

The poll was taken prior to OU's games Monday night. The Sooners blanked UMKC 4-0 and 8-0 at the OU Softball Complex to improve to 14-3 on the season.

Five Big 12 teams are ranked including three in the top six and two additional teams received votes. Nebraska (12-1) is the highest-ranked conference school at No. 3. Texas (19-2) suffered two losses to Michigan over the weekend and dropped to No. 5. OU rose to sixth while Texas A&M (16-7) was ranked 19th and Oklahoma State (9-3) was tied for 23rd. Kansas just missed the poll at No. 26 while Baylor had enough votes for No. 30.

Oklahoma already owns wins over No. 8 Cal State Fullerton, No. 10 Arizona State (three games), No. 22 South Florida and No. 27 Florida. The Sooners dropped an extra-innings game to No. 7 LSU.

UCLA remained at the top of the poll for the second consecutive week. The Bruins picked up 17 of the possible 18 first place votes, while Washington garnered the other top vote.

The ESPN.com/USA Softball Collegiate Top 25 poll is voted on by NCAA Division I coaches representing 15 different ASA regions and 12 different collegiate conferences. The poll is also voted on by selected softball media members. Records are as of February 24. First-place votes are in parentheses.

	Team	Record	Points
1.	UCLA (17)	22-1	449
2.	Arizona	21-2	412
3.	Nebraska	12-1	409
4.	Washington (1)	17-0-1	405
5.	Texas	19-2	387
6.	OKLAHOMA	14-3	335
7.	LSU	16-5	328
8.	Cal State Fullerton	16-7	318
9.	California	14-6	285
10.	Arizona State	17-6	280
11.	Georgia	21-3	276
12.	Stanford	14-6	269
13.	South Carolina	12-5	199
14.	Florida State	14-6	182
15.	DePaul	6-2	181
16.	Massachusetts	5-3	159
17.	Oregon State	16-7	155
18.	Michigan	8-6	145
19.	Texas A&M	16-7	131
20.	Alabama	13-5	130
21.	Ohio State	8-6	118
22.	South Florida	21-4	83
T23.	Oregon	12-5	59
T23.	Oklahoma State	9-3	59
25.	Minnesota	10-4	27

Others receiving votes: Kansas 22, Florida 11, Mississippi State 11, Northwestern 11, Baylor 8, Southern Illinois 4. Two other teams were listed on two ballots.

The NFCA poll is scheduled to be released on Wednesday. Oklahoma is currently ranked ninth in that poll.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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