Notre Dame Returns to No. 1 in Week 1 Women's National Collegiate Club Poll

BRIDGEPORT, Pa. -- The University of Notre Dame garnered 93 points to move to No. 1 following the first week of competition in the Women's National Collegiate Club ranks. Notre Dame, which finished second at the 2009 National Collegiate Club Championship and was ranked second in the 2010 preseason poll, was one point better than the University of California-Davis and University of Oregon this week and three points in front of reigning National Champion and former No. 1 ranked California Polytechnic State University which slipped to fourth.

It marks the closest the Top Four teams in the poll have been over the past four seasons as each team received at least one No. 1 vote from the pollsters.

Due to the closeness of the Top Four teams, the gap back to fifth place is substantial as the University of Michigan received 74 points this week, 16 points behind fourth place Cal Poly, as the Wolverines climbed to fifth place after ranking seventh in the preseason balloting.

The University of Arizona, University of Pennsylvania, University of California-Santa Cruz, University of California-Los Angeles and University of Texas round out the Top 10 as nine of the teams ranked in the Preseason Top 10 remained in the exclusive territory through the first weekend of collegiate club play.

Overall, the biggest movement of the week belongs to UC-Santa Cruz as the formerly varsity Banana Slugs went from receiving votes in the preseason poll to taking over the No. 8 position in the January 28 poll.

The University of Utah fell two spots this week to No. 11, while Grand Valley State University held onto its No. 12 ranking from the Preseason Poll.  The University of Florida, Michigan State University and Boston College rank No. 13-15 this week, while the University of California-San Diego, University of Central Florida, Texas A&M University, California State University-Chico and Middlebury College round out the Top 20 Poll.