Duke, LSU enter top 5 of Week 3’s college softball Power 10 rankings
Michella Chester is back with her Week 3 college softball Power 10 rankings after a loaded weekend of non-conference softball.
1. Oklahoma | LW: 1
Oklahoma remains on top. The Sooners remained perfect at the Mary Nutter collegiate classic. Beat Mississippi State and Wisconsin then shut out the next three.
2. Texas | LW: 3
The Longhorns picked up their very first loss of the season but in a classic against Stanford. Reese Atwood is pretty spectacular, putting together an astounding season so far. Hitting .632 with 9 home runs and 31 RBI, slugging 1.447.
3. Georgia | LW: 2
The Dawgs too picked up their first loss of the season at the hands of Virginia Tech. Lost by 1 run but followed it up with a 7-4 win over them the next day. Still a top 3 team and they will have a huge test with Clemson coming into town for a mid-week matchup.
4. Duke | LW: 6
Duke moves into the top 5 after a really impressive weekend. They picked up a 4-2 win over a really good Boston University team, a dominating 22-0 win over Michigan State and two wins over Villanova. Jala Wright is so impressive this season. 5-0 now with a 0.51 ERA and 38 strikeouts. A serious ace for the Blue Devils.
5. LSU | LW: 7
LSU will round out my top 5. The Tigers, led by Taylor Pleasants, are now 13-0 on the season. They added three more wins with two over Houston. Pleasants is hitting .444 with four homers.
6. Oklahoma State | LW: 8
The Cowgirls moved up after taking down Washington in an impressive 7-0 shutout win last weekend. Lexi Kilfoyl threw a complete game two-hit shutout and it only took 80 pitches to take down then-No. 4 Washington.
7. Stanford | LW: 10
The Cardinal picked up a HUGE win over Texas with a standout performance from Nijaree Canady. She struck out 11 in the complete game with just two earned runs allowed. She is as good a competitor as it gets. They went undefeated at the Lone Star State Invitational.
8. Washington | LW: 4
Washington plummets four spots after falling 7-0 to Oklahoma State. They have a big one coming up against Florida State this Saturday though.
9. Tennessee | LW: 5
I am keeping Tennessee in my Power 10, for now. Though they did lose twice at the Mary Nutter to Cal State Fullerton and UCLA. They do still have the very close losses to Stanford and Texas and two wins over Baylor who I am moving into my rankings at No. 10.
10. Baylor | LW: NR
The 10 spot was tough with a lot of possibly deserving teams but I value ranked wins and the Bears beat UCLA and Missouri at the Mary Nutter. Clemson, Alabama and FSU are my first teams out.