Until Monday, the Auburn volleyball program had never cracked the Top 25 of the AVCA Coaches Poll.

Now, ranked at No. 25, Auburn head coach Brent Crouch and the Tigers’ can say they’ve made history as they’ve snuck into the rankings, making them the fifth SEC team to land in the Top 25.

Auburn landing in the Top 25 comes after a weekend in Tallahassee, where the Tigers first beat SMU 3-1 and then topped Florida State — a team receiving votes in last week’s poll — three sets to one.

With the Tigers’ pair of wins over the weekend, Crouch has the Tigers out to a 5-0 start for the third season in a row.

“I keep saying every year: We have our expectations about where we are and then there is the level that we actually are. We are consistently beating where I think we should be,” Crouch said after Auburn’s win over FSU on Sunday. “We’re better now than I thought we’d be and we were better last fall than I thought we’d be. That’s a testament to the hard work of the players. We have a chance to go undefeated in non-conference again and I will challenge the team to do it.”

The newly 25th-ranked Auburn volleyball team returns to The Plains this week with the Auburn’s Tiger Invitational at Neville Arena getting underway with a match against Middle Tennessee on Thursday night at 6.

Auburn’s Tiger Invitational spans throughout the weekend with other a match against Charleston Southern on Friday at 7 p.m. and a match against the Mercer Bears on Saturday night at 7. Admission is free for all three of the weekend’s matches.