Alabama Softball Falls to No. 11 and 12 in Week Eight National Polls

A series loss on the road dropped Alabama softball out of this week’s top 10 in the national rankings, coming in at No. 11 in the ESPN.com/USA Softball poll and No. 12 in the USA Today/NFCA poll.

Last week, the Crimson Tide won a midweek contest against Kent State before falling in two of its three games against SEC foe Missouri on the road. Alabama is currently 32-6 overall and 8-4 in conference play, which places Alabama fourth in the SEC standings.

Despite some minor shifting of individual spots, the top seven teams in each poll remain the same with only one new team entering the top 10. With Alabama dropping out of the top 10 in both polls, UCLA moves in from No. 13 last week to No. 9 this week in the NFCA poll after winning two games against previously eighth-ranked Washington, who is No. 10 this week. In the USA Softball poll, Oklahoma is the lone newcomer in the top 10, moving up two spots from No. 12 last week.

Alabama also fell five spots to No. 12 in this week’s NCAA Rating Percentage Index (RPI), released Monday. The rankings take a team’s win-loss record into account as well as its strength of schedule. The RPI rankings play a large role in the eventual seeding for the NCAA Tournament.

Alabama is one of 11 SEC schools ranked in this week’s top 25. All 13 SEC teams are either ranked or receiving votes in at least one poll this week. Ranked SEC teams include Florida (3/4), Auburn (5/6), Texas A&M (6/5), LSU (8/8), Alabama (12/11), Tennessee (17/17), Georgia (19/18), Kentucky (20/20), Ole Miss (21/RV), Missouri (24/25) and Arkansas (T25/RV). South Carolina is receiving votes in the NFCA poll and Mississippi State is receiving votes in the USA Softball poll.

Alabama is set to face Lipscomb on Wednesday, April 5, at 6 p.m. CT in Florence, Ala., at the Florence Sportsplex before welcoming eighth-ranked LSU to Rhoads Stadium this weekend for a three-game series, starting on Friday, April 7, at 6:30 p.m. CT. Saturday’s game will air live on SEC Network at 8 p.m. CT and Sunday’s contest will air on ESPN2 at 2 p.m. CT.