Lady Vols basketball dropped another spot in the Associated Press poll after snapping its three-game losing streak.
Tennessee (16-5, 4-5 SEC) is ranked No. 19 in the AP poll after a 76-71 road win against Missouri on Sunday and a seven-point loss to No. 2 South Carolina last Monday. The Lady Vols were ranked No. 18 in the AP Top 25 last week and No. 19 in the USA TODAY coaches poll last week.
Tennessee will now finish a five-game gauntlet that includes four top-10 opponents. It hosts No. 6 UConn (21-2, 12-0 Big East) on Thursday (6:30 p.m. ET, ESPN) before traveling to No. 5 LSU on Sunday.
The Lady Vols’ five losses were all by single digits, and their first four losses were by a combined eight points. Their seven-point loss to South Carolina was the largest margin in a loss. With Vanderbilt entering the polls, all of Tennessee’s losses were to ranked opponents.
The Lady Vols started Caldwell’s first season going 13-0 before suffering their first loss, which was their best start to a season since going 15-0 in 2017-18. Their 7-0 start got them back in the rankings on Dec. 9 with wins over Florida State and then-No. 20 Iowa.
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Tennessee has been ranked in the polls for the last nine weeks, restarting its streak in the polls after being unranked for more than a year. In the entire history of the AP Top 25, Tennessee has spent 787 of 878 weeks ranked.
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Before getting ranked this season, the last time the Lady Vols had been ranked in the AP Top 25 was Week 4 of the 2023-24 season, which was released Nov. 27, 2023. Tennessee had only been ranked for 10 of the previous 45 weeks of the AP Top 25 since being ranked the entire 2021-22 season.
The Lady Vols climbed into the top 15 on Dec. 23 after winning three games away from Knoxville. Tennessee won its first true road game against Memphis and then won both its games at the West Palm Beach Classic against Richmond and Tulsa in a four-day span.
Cora Hall covers University of Tennessee women’s athletics. Email her at cora.hall@knoxnews.com and follow her on Twitter @corahalll. If you enjoy Cora’s coverage, consider a digital subscription that allows you to access all of it.
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