Mon Feb 11 13:53:30 2008

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Lady Vols take top spot in poll

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New York, NY (Sports Network) - Tennessee has moved back into the top spot in the latest Associated Press women's college basketball poll, taking advantage of Connecticut's first loss of the season last week.

The Lady Vols (21-1), who were the top-ranked team for the first seven polls, received 45 first-place votes and a total of 1,245 points from a nationwide media panel.

Connecticut (22-1) had held the top spot for the past seven weeks and was a unanimous choice for the past five, but a 73-71 loss last Tuesday at Rutgers dropped the Huskies one spot to second. UConn still received five first-place votes and 1,174 total points.

North Carolina and Maryland remain third and fourth, respectively, while the big Rutgers win vaulted the Scarlet Knights two spots into fifth. Stanford, LSU, Baylor, California and Oklahoma round out this week's top 10.

The second 10 starts with West Virginia and follows with Duke, Old Dominion, George Washington, Oklahoma State, Notre Dame, Kansas State, Pittsburgh, Utah and Texas A&M.

Rounding out this week's poll are Syracuse, Wyoming, Ohio State, UTEP and Vanderbilt. UTEP and Vanderbilt are this week's newcomers, replacing Georgia and DePaul.

UTEP has won 15 straight games and is ranked for the first time in the history of the program, while Vanderbilt was ranked earlier this season. Georgia's loss to LSU on Sunday knocked the Lady Dogs out of the rankings after a run of 98 straight polls.