Following a February 20 extra-inning loss to Florida State, UCLA held a 7-3 record. The Bruins than ran off 25 straight wins, including three-game sweeps of leading conference rivals Arizona (without allowing a run all weekend) and Washington, and a series-opening win this past Friday at Stanford. This winning streak vaulted UCLA up to No. 2 in the ESPN.com/USA Softball poll.
Stanford bounced bounced back on Saturday, however, defeating UCLA 1-0 on a walk-off single in the bottom of the seventh and ending the Bruins' win streak at 25. Showing it was no fluke, the Cardinal shut out UCLA again on Sunday by a 1-0 score (the run coming in the bottom of the third). As this article from the Stanford athletics website noted, "UCLA (32-5, 10-2 Pac-12) entered this weekend having not been shut out once all season but suffered back-to-back shutouts at the hands of the Cardinal (26-10, 5-4 Pac-12)."
With the two losses, UCLA dropped from No. 2 to No. 5 in the ESPN.com/USA Softball poll. I may be biased, having received my undergraduate degree from UCLA, but that seems like a pretty steep fall after such close games. Oklahoma (36-0) remains No. 1, followed by Alabama (33-5), Virginia Tech (29-5), and Florida State (37-4). This past weekend, in fact, Virginia Tech took two of three from FSU in ACC play. The series win over UCLA propelled Stanford into the Top 25 at No. 24.