KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Providence has climbed to fifth in the latest NAIA Women's Volleyball Top 25 Poll, matching the highest ranking in program history and giving the Frontier Conference two teams in the top five.
Bellevue (Neb.), which is in its first season in the Frontier, is ranked third in the poll, behind No. 1 Eastern Oregon and No. 2 Concordia (Neb.).
No. 21 Montana Tech and 24th-ranked Dakota State (S.D.) also represent the Frontier in the top 25. Carroll, Montana Western and Valley City State (N.D.) are in the receiving votes category.
Providence was ranked 10th in the previous poll and has since picked up victories over then-No. 8 IU Kokomo, then-No. 21 Nelson University and then-No. 24 William Carey. The Argos' lone loss on the season came at the hands of Eastern Oregon, which is 8-0.
"We are extremely excited and honored by our top-five ranking," UP coach Arunas Duda said in a news release. "This has been a collection of many years of dedication and hard work by the players and coaches to get back to this point. This is a mature group that is battle tested, and we were able to work our way through some tough matches early on.
"I'm optimistic for the future because we pride ourselves on doing the right things. We know we must continue to work hard and improve every week. We are also smart enough to know that there is still a lot of volleyball ahead of us and defending this ranking gets tougher each week because everyone will bring their best against our team every night."
Providence (7-1) begins Frontier play this week, traveling to Carroll on Friday and Rocky Mountain on Saturday.
