PROVO, Utah – BYU athletics has four teams ranked in the top 10 of their respective polls with men’s cross country at No. 2, soccer at No. 5, women’s cross country at No. 6 and women’s volleyball at No. 9.
The cross country teams have maintained their rankings since the men opened at No. 2 and the women at No. 6 in the USTFCCCA Preseason Coaches Poll. Both teams will compete against several top 25 teams this Saturday at the Bill Dellinger Invitational in Oregon.
Women’s volleyball began the season ranked No. 9 in the preseason AVCA Coaches Poll before falling to No. 13 following a loss to Marquette, currently ranked No. 10. The Cougars won at No. 18 Utah and No. 1 Stanford (then No. 2) last week to regain their spot in the top 10 at No. 9. BYU opens West Coast Conference play this week at Gonzaga Thursday and at Portland Saturday.
Soccer began the season unranked but receiving votes in the United Soccer Coaches Preseason Poll. After opening the season with wins at Alabama and Mississippi State, the Cougars jumped to No. 14 in the first poll of the regular season. BYU has continued winning and climbing in the polls as the 8-0-0 Cougars sit at No. 5. They play at Long Beach State on Thursday and host UC Irvine on Saturday.
This marks the first time four fall Cougar programs have been ranked in the top 10 simultaneously since the end of the 2016 season. That year, volleyball finished the season ranked No. 8, men’s and women’s cross country took 7th and 10th, respectively, at the NCAA Championships and women’s soccer came in at No. 9 in the final polls.
Prior to 2016, the last time four fall teams were ranked in the top 10 was 1999 when the same four programs were in the top 10 for the week of Oct. 4. Volleyball was 10th, soccer was 9th, men’s cross country was 7th and women’s cross country was 3rd. Women’s cross country went on to win the NCAA national title that season while volleyball finished 13th, soccer 20th and men’s cross country 30th.