USA Today/NFCA Preseason Division I Top 25 Poll

UCLA begins the season where it left off in 2003 -- at the top. The Bruins are ranked No. 1 in the USA Today/NFCA Preseason Top 25, released Wednesday by the National Fastpitch Coaches Association. 

UCLA, which won the 2003 national championship, received 26 of the possible 27 first-place votes. 

Head coach Sue Enquist returns 11 players from last year's championship team, including Keira Gorel. Goerl threw a no-hitter in the Bruins' win over Pac-10 rival California in the national championship game. Cal begins the season ranked third. 

Arizona joins UCLA and Cal as one of four teams from the Pac-10 ranked in top five. The Wildcats check in at No. 2, while Washington begins the season ranked fifth. 

Oklahoma is ranked fourth, while fellow Women's College World Series participant Alabama is sixth. The surprise WCWS squad from last season, Louisiana-Lafayette is ninth while Texas is tied with Michigan for the No. 10 position. 

Defending SEC champion Georgia and Michigan are No. 7 and No. 8, respectively. 
DePaul, which lost All-American pitcher Lindsay Chouinard, begins the season 12th and is followed by Cal State Fullerton, LSU and Stanford. 

Oregon, picked to finish seventh in the Pac-10 this season, is ranked No. 16 while Iowa, Texas A&M, Florida State and Arizona State. 

The last five ranked teams are Oklahoma State, South Carolina, Fresno State, Southern Illinois and Michigan State. 

Arizona and Oklahoma have been ranked in every NFCA poll since its inception in 1995.