The Duke Blue Devils stuck within the top 10 of the USA TODAY Sports women’s basketball coaches poll on Tuesday, but one of their conference foes jumped over them to retake the unofficial lead among ACC teams.
Duke lost for the second time this season last Thursday, an 81-70 defeat at the hands of South Carolina, but coaches around the country clearly didn’t see any shame in losing to the defending national champions. The Blue Devils only slipped back one spot to No. 10, but they did trade places with the Notre Dame Fighting Irish to fall back behind the preseason conference champions.
Both teams have two losses so far this season, but the Blue Devils have played two more games than the Fighting Irish. Notre Dame earned 546 points in the voting while Duke trailed far behind with just 483.
Head coach [autotag]Kara Lawson[/autotag] and her team didn’t end the week on a losing streak, however. Duke dominated Virginia Tech on Sunday in their first ACC game of the season thanks to a 27-point performance from five-star freshman Toby Fournier.
The UCLA Bruins and Connecticut Huskies remained in the first and second overall spots once again, and the Gamecocks moved back up to No. 3 with their midweek win. The LSU Tigers and USC Trojans both rose one place to complete the top five.