Oregon State out of women’s Top 25; Stanford still No. 1

NEWYORK » Oregon State’s fouryear run in the Top 25 ended Monday when the Beavers fell out of The Associated Press women’s basketball poll for the first time since 2016.

The Beavers had the seventhlongest active streak, being ranked for 76 consecutive weeks dating to Dec. 19, 2016. Oregon State lost its lone game last week, falling to Washington State and dropping out of the poll from No. 21.

While the Beavers’ streak is over, Stanford remained No. 1 for the third consecutive week. Tara Vanderveer became the winningest coach in women’s basketball history, passing the late Pat Summitt, with her 1,099th victory. Vanderveer got her 1,100th victory on Saturday, beating Southern Cal. The Cardinal visit No. 10 UCLA on Monday night.

Stanford received 26 of 30 firstplace votes from a media panel. Louisville, Uconn, North Carolina State and South Carolina followed the Cardinal again in the poll. Connecticut holds the longest active streak of being ranked, with 515 consecutive Top 25 ap-

pearances.

Arizona, Baylor, Oregon, Texas A& M and UCLA round out the first 10 teams in the poll.

Kentucky lost its first game of the season, falling to then- No. 24 Depaul. The Wildcats dropped to No. 13 while the Blue Demons rose to 18th.

Michigan State replaced Oregon State in the poll, coming in at No. 25.

Here are a few other tidbits from this week’s Top 25:

STEP UP THE COMPETITION

Baylor played three games in four days last week, winning by an average of 73 points, including consecutive 93- point victories, andwill take a holiday break before visiting TCU on Jan. 2, followed by No.

3 Uconn at home five days later.

“We’re going to flush these last three games because we’re going to play more talented teams,” coach Kim Mulkey said. “That’s not a knock on those teams. It’s just what we know when you get to conference how difficult it is. And then when you take the elite program that Connecticut is, we know what we face with those guys.”

ON BREAK

Second- ranked Louisville is still on pause because of the coronavirus. The Cardinals last played ondec. 9 againstduke and will play the Blue Devils again on Dec. 31. They had games postponed against North Carolina, Florida State andmiami. The Cardinals weren’t the only Top 25 team on pause last week. No. 16 Ohio State and No. 17 Michigan also are on a break because of COVID- 19 issues.