First VolleyballMag Super 16 Media Poll of 2024: Pitt unanimous No. 1, Nebraska 2nd

This is the first VolleyballMag Super 16 Media Poll of the season and unbeaten Pittsburgh is a unanimous No. 1. 

The Panthers got all 11 of the first-place votes. Nebraska was a solid No. 2.

As the voters noted in their comments, after that things could have gone a number of ways.

Rank, Team, Points, First-Place Votes

1. Pittsburgh (192 points, 12 first-place vote)
2. Nebraska (175)
3. Stanford (166)
4. Louisville (144)
5. Penn State (136)
6. Creighton (135)
7. Wisconsin (112)
8. Texas (109)
9. Kansas (95)
10. Purdue (81)
11. Oregon (60)
12. Georgia Tech (56)
13. Kentucky (53)
14. Arizona State (38)
15. Florida (26)
16. Minnesota (20)

Also receiving votes: TCU, Florida State, USC, Baylor, Washington, Georgia, SMU, North Carolina

The voters

Lincoln Arneal (@Lincoln_VB) — Nebraska beat writer for Huskers Illustrated and co-host of Volleyball State podcast
Abby Benton (@numberonevolleyball) — played at DII Catawba and DIII William Peace and has 54K Instagram followers and more than 116K on TikTok
Michella Chester (@michellachester) — THE volleyball voice of NCAA.com
Shelby Coppedge (@shelbycoppedge) — ESPN analyst, former Texas A&M-Corpus Christi DS
Emily Ehman @emilyehman) — Big Ten Network, ESPN, Volleyball World TV analyst; former Northwestern DS
Lee Feinswog (@VBMagazine) — editor of VolleyballMag
Daniel Gillman (@DanielGillman/@SixRotations) — host of Six Rotations for the AVCA, national play-by-play for multiple sports
Sam Gore (@sambgore) — veteran broadcaster/studio host who does ESPN volleyball play-by-play, host of the Fifth Set during the NCAA Tournament
Mick Haley (@Michaelhaley6) — ESPN analyst, former national-championship coach at Texas and USC and 2000 USA Olympic coach
Amy Pauly (@acpauly10) — Head coach of the Orlando Valkyries of the Pro Volleyball Federation and the team’s vice-president of volleyball operations; former assistant coach at USC, head coach at UAB; libero at Alabama
Dennis Punzel (@DennisPunzel) — Wisconsin beat writer for the Wisconsin State Journal, author of Point! Wisconsin
Ed Strong (@VBMagazine) — VolleyballMag super Tweeter

Voter comments

Arneal: Based on court play, Pitt and Nebraska have been the most impressive teams during the last week. The Panthers haven’t lost yet, so they get the nod over Nebraska. Penn State and Stanford are a half step back and will make this a fun conference season.

Creighton looked like they were on the edge of a break through in five-set losses to Nebraska and Louisville, and the Bluejays finally broke through with wins over Kansas and Purdue. Texas and Wisconsin have played brutal schedules, but I expect them to get the lineups sorted out. Kentucky has gone through the gauntlet with five top-10 losses (according to me), but I expect they will turn it on in the SEC again this year. Arizona State and TCU could use a few marquee wins, but their performances have been superb so far.

Punzel: No. 1 is easy with Pitt playing flawlessly. Only slight reservation is that its schedule hasn’t been as challenging as other elite programs. Nebraska has a couple big wins but one puzzling loss, but gets edge over Stanford from head to head wipeout. After that it gets murky, with schedule disparities. I could argue with myself about the order from 4 to 16. I suspect things will get murkier as we go.

Gore: My dominant team of the week is Pitt, which has not dropped a set all season.

Creighton was incredibly impressive this past week, beginning with an almost reverse-sweep, five-set loss at Louisville, then responding with back to back wins over then-AVCA No. 6 Purdue and No. 10 Kansas. All of this was on the road.

The team to keep your eye on from this point forward is Florida. Alexis Stucky returned from a 368-day absence, played flawlessly this past weekend and lifted up everyone around her. The Gators now have three full strength All-Americans in the starting lineup

Gillman: Pitt and Nebraska are stepping up week after week and have emerged as the clear top tier. Creighton proved a ton in Kansas this past weekend, and the stars are starting to come back in Gainesville. Meanwhile I felt Washington was deserving of a ranking, and keeping an eye on unbeaten Syracuse

Pauly: After four weeks of play I think we we have a clear group of top three teams. Their serve and pass is elite, and they are the most organized and consistent teams to watch.

The group of 4 through 10 could really go either way. They alI have top 25 wins and/or lost to someone in this group. I was close to putting Creighton in the top five because of their play this weekend, but couldn’t justify that with a loss to Louisville. The next group of 11-16 doesn’t have any bad losses. One could argue Florida has a bad loss to USF, but I don’t know if that will technically be determined until later in the season. Plus, Florida looked like a refreshed team with all their starters back Sunday. Arizona State and Kentucky are the only teams without top-25 wins but have good wins over San Diego and SMU.

In general, I docked teams who had recent losses compared to those who lost the first two weekends.

Benton: As I started creating this ranking, I was like “this will be easy. Pitt at #1 and …” I had no clue what to do after that. With so many upsets, it has been hard to truly rank these teams and balancing the basis of wins and losses and just how the team looks talent-wise. But what I have focused the most on when determining whether one team should be above another is how they have done against teams they are supposed to beat. It’s obviously important to win against a ranked team, but it’s also important to win (even sweep) the unranked teams. This slightly affected how I placed Nebraska, Texas, and Georgia Tech in my ranking. Creighton on the other hand, I have ranked No. 6 because while they have two losses, they are to Nebraska and Louisville and both in five sets. Besides that, they have seemingly taken care of everyone else, including beating Purdue in four and sweeping Kansas. Oregon is a tough one for me because their only loss is to Pitt. Minnesota is in a similar boat to Creighton in that all three of their losses are in five sets. Their match against Wisconsin will be very indicative to where they will be ranked next week. And also Kentucky’s Sunday match at Florida will be huge for next week’s ranking.

Emily: Pitt starts at No. 1 after sweeping Penn State and still not having dropped a single set through conference play — not a lot of holes in that team! Despite the loss to SMU a few weeks ago, Nebraska is my No. 2 after sweeping two top-5 opponents this week — they’re legit! Creighton moved into my No. 6 spot after an impressive two top-10 win week.

Chester: Pitt is my No. 1 overall team, absolute domination this season and have yet to drop a set. The Huskers have the biggest wins though with two statement wins over Stanford and Louisville this past week. Creighton and Kansas had really impressive outings this week and the Jayhawks made a big jump after taking down both then-No. 6 Purdue. I have them above Wisconsin and Texas because of that top-10 win, and Texas above Wisconsin because of the head-to-head victory.

Strong: The top four feels pretty stable as Pitt-Nebraska-Stanford-Penn State. Creighton jumps all the way to No. 6 after a highly impressive week. Considered a bunch of teams for final spot but went with TCU, who has a top-20 win, losses only to teams in the top 10, and seems to have hit their stride.

Feinswog: I was in Pittsburgh when Pitt beat Penn State last week. And I’ve also been fortunate to have seen in person Stanford, Louisville, Nebraska, Purdue, Wisconsin and Kentucky. It’s going to take a very, very good team hitting on all cylinders to beat Pitt.

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