February 28, 2013 by Charlie Eisenhood in Analysis, Rankings
Lots of tournament action this weekend, but mostly among regional-level teams. The next four weeks (Easterns Qualifier, Stanford Invite, Centex, Easterns) will really start to solidify the rankings (at least in Division I).
Here’s a look at this week’s rankings:
D-I OPEN
– UNC-Wilmington moves up two slots to #14 after an undefeated performance at the Hellfish Bonanza. Yes, they were supposed to win those games, but they swarmed a strong JMU team in the finals and made it look easy. Big test for them at the Easterns Qualifier this weekend.
– No other top 25 teams played this weekend, but we have our eye on some bubble teams: Eastern Michigan (beat a lot of lesser competition at Cat Fight), Whitman (won the Stanford Open with wins over a lot of quality Southwest regionals teams), and JMU (lost in the finals of Hellfish to UNC-W, but looked very impressive this weekend).
D-I WOMEN’S
– Western Washington earns a spot in the top 25 with a tournament win at the Stanford Open. They took down Victoria (#15) en route to the finals, where they beat Colorado College 9-8. They have a big challenge playing the top teams at the Stanford Invite next weekend that should give us a better sense of where this team stands.
– Victoria only lost to Western Washington, but that pushes them down to #22. They couldn’t repeat their undefeated performance of the Santa Barbara Invite.
– At Pres Day two weeks ago, UC San Diego had a great weekend, losing only to ranked teams (and beating one of them, UCLA). They followed that up with a strong performance at the Stanford Open where they lost to Western Washington in the semifinals. They join the rankings at number 23.
– Virginia moves up three slots to #20 after a strong undefeated Women’s Easterns performance. They beat ranked teams Pittsburgh and UNC-Wilmington along the way.
D-III OPEN
– Puget Sound remains at #1 after their only loss of the weekend came on universe to UC-Santa Cruz, who would eventually make the finals of Stanford Invite.
– Harding looks to be back in top form after a quiet T-Town. Apocalypse rolled through pool play and took down Oklahoma in the semis (a team who beat them last month) and Oklahoma State in the finals to win HUX.
– Kenyon, likely the second best team at Cat Fight behind Eastern Michigan, finishes second and holds their 6th place standing in the rankings.
– Wake Forest jumps to #10. In Hellfish Bonanza’s “Pool of Universe” (all six games were decided by 1 point), Wake Forest got the short end of the stick, going 1-2. However, their two losses came to semis finishers, Delaware and Carnegie Mellon.
– Lewis and Clark falls out of the rankings. By necessity, Reed moves in at #25. A 2-4 finish at Stanford Invite with three losses to B teams just won’t cut it for L&C.
D-III WOMEN’S
– Claremont retains their number one ranking, despite a handful of losses at the Stanford Open. They beat Carleton College – B (#4) 12-9 and still look like the cream of the DIII crop.
-Elonmoves up two slots after some wins over DI competition at the Hellfish Bonanza.
– Haverford falls to #8 after losing to two B teams at Pigglyfest this weekend.
