Nebraska volleyball continued its dominant start to the 2026 season by winning all three of its matches last week, improving to 46-1 in its first 47 matches under Dani Busboom Kelly.
The Huskers will enter Week 2 of Big Ten play as the team to beat in the conference, remaining No. 1 in the latest AVCA Coaches Poll released on Monday, Sept. 28
The Cornhuskers opened the week by resuming their suspended match against Missouri from Wrigley Field by sweeping the Tigers before recording back-to-back sweeps of Rutgers and Ohio State to begin conference play.
Nebraska's defense was dominant throughout the match against Ohio State, as it held the Buckeyes' offense
to a minus-.010 hitting percentage. It marked the eighth time this season the Cornhuskers have held an opponent below a .100 hitting percentage.
Texas won a five-set thriller on Rocky Top — the second win by a Longhorns athletic team in Knoxville that week — against Tennessee, coming from behind and reverse-sweeping the Vols. Torrey Stafford finished with 28 kills and 12 digs for her fourth double-double of the season, with six of her kills coming in the winner-take-all fifth set.
Elsewhere, Pittsburgh, who learned that Olivia Babcock is returning for a fifth season, handed Stanford its second loss of the week and its fifth loss in its last eight matches. The Panthers remain undefeated at 12-0 on the season.
That all said, here's a look at the updated AVCA poll:
College volleyball rankings after Week 5
First place votes in parentheses
- Nebraska (44)
- Pitt (19)
- Kentucky
- Louisville
- SMU
- Wisconsin
- Florida
- Texas
- TCU
- Purdue
- Tennessee
- Arizona State
- Stanford
- Texas A&M
- Indiana
- Penn State
- Oregon
- BYU
- Kansas
- Minnesota
- Baylor
- Washington
- Utah
- Colorado
- North Carolina
Others receiving votes: Michigan State 139; Illinois 89; Southern California 57; Georgia Tech 54; Creighton 51; UCLA 47; Kansas State 26; Vanderbilt 15; Ball State 9; Colorado State 7; Georgia 6.
The USA TODAY app gets you to the heart of the news — fast. Download for award-winning coverage, crosswords, audio storytelling, the eNewspaper and more.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: College volleyball rankings after Week 5: Updated AVCA Coaches Poll
