ORLANDO – The UCF softball team is on the rise once again in the national rankings as they went 5-0 over the past week, including a victory over then No. 5 Virginia Tech on Monday.
UCF rose three spots in the USA Today/NFCA Top 25 to No. 20 this week after checking in at No. 23 last week. ESPN/USA Softball's rankings had the Knights at No. 20 last week and have them pegged as the same in this week's release. The other two polls, generated by D1Softball and Softball America, have the Black and Gold at No. 18 this week after having them at No. 23 and No. 20 respectively.
This is the first time this season that UCF has been ranked in the top 20 across all four polls recognized by the NCAA.
UCF has been ranked as high as No. 10 in the NCAA's RPI throughout the week but begin Tuesday at No. 13.
The Knights ended last week with a pair of losses at home to No. 5 Virginia Tech but bounced back in a major way on Monday. UCF came from behind twice and rallied for an 11th inning 5-4 victory, the Knights' third win over a ranked opponent this season. They followed that up with a 2-1 win at North Florida, a team that boasted the country's fifth lowest ERA. The Black and Gold capped off the perfect week with a sweep of Memphis, not allowing a run the entire series with wins of 4-0, 6-0 and 8-0. UCF has only shutout an American Athletic Conference opponent over an entire series once before which was back in 2015 at ECU. The only other time it occurred was last season when the Knights shutout FAU over the course of a three-game series.
The Black and Gold are seven spots away from tying their highest ranking in program history in the USA Today/NFCA Top 25, climbing to No. 13 in week 15 in 2015. They're six away from tying their best in the ESPN/USA Softball rankings, checking in at No. 14 in week 14 of 2015.
UP NEXT
The Knights will host ECU on Thursday through Saturday as they continue American Athletic Conference play. Game one starts at 6 p.m. on Thursday, followed by an identical start time on Friday and a 2 p.m. start on Saturday.
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