Wisconsin athletics: rankings roundup 10/14

Monday is a big rankings release day around the NCAA and instead of having three separate posts that you probably won’t click on, we are putting them all into one handy post that you will click on because we care about your time wasting at work. Gotta be efficient when wasting time.

Women’s hockey

The women’s hockey team remained as the No. 1 team in the country, but somehow a dominant sweep over the No. 8 Ohio State Buckeyes led one voter to think “you know what? I think Minnesota is better now.”

Was that person “flashy thinged” by the Men In Black? We’ll never know, but it seems highly likely. The Badgers got 14 of the 15 first place votes and might have to pitch two shutouts next weekend to get their unanimous No. 1 ranking back.

Duluth moved up one to No. 8 while Ohio State dropped one spot to No. 9 to finish off the WCHA teams in the rankings.

The Badgers are still the unanimous No. 1 in the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine poll, with Minnesota right behind them and Ohio State and Minnesota Duluth swapping their rankings from the USCHO.com poll.

Men’s hockey

The men’s team had a pretty crazy opening weekend. They lost to No. 10 Boston College on the road in a tough 5-3 game and then blitzed Merrimack to the tune of 11 goals to get their first win of the season.

All in all it resulted in them dropping one spot in the rankings, to No. 17. Their opening night opponent, the Eagles, jumped all the way up to No. 6 and defending national champion Minnesota Duluth dropped to No. 3 after their shocking loss in their first game of the season. Denver is your new No. 1 with Minnesota State slotting in at No. 2.

Notre Dame is the highest ranked B1G team, at No. 7, while Penn State, who is ranked No. 9, received a first place vote. Ohio State at No. 12 and then the Badgers round out the rest of the conference.

The Badgers open up at home this weekend against the No. 3 ranked Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs.

Volleyball

The volleyball team, coming off of a monster sweep against Minnesota on Sunday, moved up to No. 6 in this week’s AVCA Coaches Poll, replacing the vanquished Minnesota who plummeted all the way to...No. 7.

Nebraska is still the top ranked team from the B1G, sitting at No. 5, while the Nittany Lions of Penn State are at No. 8. Illinois remains at No. 17 and Purdue at No. 20. Michigan is amongst the “also receiving votes” category.