<p>If you know the Index, Value or Text. also if you don't have an ID for a direct reference.</p>

<p><a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/149573/check-if-option-is-selected-with-jquery-if-not-select-a-default#149820">This</a>, <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/196684/jquery-get-select-option-text#196687">this</a> and <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/47824/using-core-jquery-how-do-you-remove-all-the-options-of-a-select-box-then-add-on#47829">this</a> are all helpful answers.</p>

<p>Example markup</p>

<pre><code>&lt;div class="selDiv"&gt;
  &lt;select class="opts"&gt;
    &lt;option selected value="DEFAULT"&gt;Default&lt;/option&gt;
    &lt;option value="SEL1"&gt;Selection 1&lt;/option&gt;
    &lt;option value="SEL2"&gt;Selection 2&lt;/option&gt;
  &lt;/select&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
</code></pre>

Answering my own question for documentation. I'm sure there are other ways to accomplish this, but this works and this code is tested.
```
```
<html>
<head>
<script language="Javascript" src="javascript/jquery-1.2.6.min.js"></script>
<script type="text/JavaScript">

$(function() {
    $(".update").bind("click",      // bind the click event to a div
        function() {
            var selectOption = $('.selDiv').children('.opts') ;
            var _this = $(this).next().children(".opts") ;

            $(selectOption).find("option[index='0']").attr("selected","selected");
//          $(selectOption).find("option[value='DEFAULT']").attr("selected","selected");
//          $(selectOption).find("option[text='Default']").attr("selected","selected");

//          $(_this).find("option[value='DEFAULT']").attr("selected","selected");
//          $(_this).find("option[text='Default']").attr("selected","selected");
//          $(_this).find("option[index='0']").attr("selected","selected");

    }); // END Bind
}); // End eventlistener

</script>
</head>
<body>
<div class="update" style="height:50px; color:blue; cursor:pointer;">Update</div>
<div class="selDiv">
        <select class="opts">
            <option selected value="DEFAULT">Default</option>
            <option value="SEL1">Selection 1</option>
            <option value="SEL2">Selection 2</option>
        </select>
    </div>
</body>
</html>
```
```