OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. – After finishing the 2009 season with a 51-12 record and a NCAA National Championship title, the University of Washington begins the 2010 softball season with a No. 1 ranking in the ESPN.com/USA Softball Pre-Season Collegiate Top 25 Poll announced today by the Amateur Softball Association (ASA).ASA/USA Softball is in its eighth season of releasing the ESPN.com/USA Softball Collegiate Top 25 Poll along with weekly Players of the Week and ultimately the USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year Award.

Click here to view the complete pre-season poll.

Washington, with 17 first-place votes, posted a 5-1 record at the 2009 Women’s College World Series, defeating Florida 3-2 in the second game of the Championship Series after defeating the Gators 8-0 in the first game. Florida dropped to a pre-season fifth-ranking after finished up the year with a 63-5 record, the only team in 2009 to post single digits in the loss column.

Alabama, with one first-place vote, starts out the 2010 campaign with a second-place ranking, after finishing last season with a 54-11 record. No. 3 Michigan and No. 4 Arizona, with one first-place vote, round out the Top 5 in the pre-season poll.

No. 6 UCLA is the other holder of a first-place vote with one and is the only team along with No. 10 Oklahoma in the top ten that did not make a 2009 WCWS appearance. Oklahoma made the biggest leap in the poll, finishing last year at No. 17.

After receiving votes in the final 2009 poll, No. 23 ULL and No. 24 Fresno State cracked the Top 25 while Jacksonville State and North Dakota State dropped out, but both are still receiving votes.

The Top 50 Watch List for the 2010 USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year will be announced Wednesday while the first regular season poll of the year will be released on Feb. 16.

About ASA

The Amateur Softball Association, founded in 1933, is the National Governing Body of softball in the United States and a member of the United States Olympic Committee. The ASA has become one of the nation's largest sports organizations and now sanctions competition in every state through a network of 77 local associations. The ASA has grown from a few hundred teams in the early days to over 210,000 teams today, representing a membership of more than three million. For more information on the ASA, visit www.asasoftball.com.

About USA Softball

USA Softball is the brand created, operated and owned by the ASA that links the USA Men’s, Women’s, Junior Boys’ and Junior Girls’ National Team programs together. USA Softball is responsible for training, equipping and promoting these four National Teams to compete in international and domestic competitions. The USA Softball Women’s National Team is one of the only two women’s sports involved in the Olympic movement to capture three consecutive gold medals at the Olympic Games since 1996. The U.S. women have also won eight World Championship titles including the last six consecutive as well as claimed two World Cup of Softball titles. For more information about USA Softball, please visit www.usasoftball.com.