There was no change in the top five teams in the Nike/US Lacrosse rankings, but plenty of action throughout the rest of the poll.
One of the more interesting conference races is in the Pac-12, where a double round-robin schedule is creating some chaos. Preseason league favorite USC had a fairly strong nonconference showing with wins over Virginia Tech and Notre Dame, along with an overtime loss to unbeaten Boston College, but the Pac-12 gauntlet has derailed the Trojans. Colorado avenged an overtime loss to USC on Friday and then the Trojans, who were already swept by Stanford, were stunned at Oregon yesterday.
Stanford hosts Colorado on Friday with control of the Pac-12 regular season title up for grabs. Colorado won the first meeting 18-16.
Maryland is still the odds on favorite in the Big Ten, but Northwestern and Penn State are both surging and share the conference lead at 3-0, a half game ahead of Maryland. Northwestern visits Penn State on Saturday with first place on the line.
No. 1 Stony Brook is poised to run the America East table, but the Seawolves have one of two remaining nonconference testers on Friday when Johns Hopkins comes to town. Hopkins started 3-0 with a big win over Loyola, but has since gone 5-5 with four one-goal losses. This is a huge opportunity for the Blue Jays, who narrowly missed a NCAA berth last season.
April 9, 2018 |
W/L |
Prev |
Next |
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|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Stony Brook | 12-0 | 1 | 4/13 vs. Johns Hopkins |
| 2 | Boston College | 14-0 | 2 | 4/11 vs. No. 20 Dartmouth |
| 3 | Maryland | 12-1 | 3 | 4/10 at Princeton |
| 4 | James Madison | 11-1 | 4 | 4/13 at William & Mary |
| 5 | North Carolina | 9-3 | 5 | 4/14 at No. 15 Syracuse |
| 6 | Florida | 10-3 | 7 | 4/14 vs. Marquette |
| 7 | Northwestern | 11-3 | 9 | 4/14 at No. 16 Penn State |
| 8 | Penn | 9-2 | 10 | 4/14 vs. Columbia |
| 9 | Loyola | 9-3 | 6 | 4/14 vs. Lafayette |
| 10 | Towson | 10-2 | 8 | 4/13 at Elon |
| 11 | Virginia | 8-5 | 11 | 4/11 at No. 19 Navy |
| 12 | Stanford | 11-3 | 13 | 4/13 vs. No. 17 Colorado |
| 13 | Virginia Tech | 11-4 | 15 | 4/14 at No. 2 Boston College |
| 14 | Duke | 7-5 | 16 | 4/9 at High Point |
| 15 | Syracuse | 8-6 | 17 | 4/14 vs. No. 5 North Carolina |
| 16 | Penn State | 9-4 | 18 | 4/14 vs. No. 7 Northwestern |
| 17 | Colorado | 9-4 | 20 | 4/13 at No. 12 Stanford |
| 18 | USC | 7-7 | 14 | 4/13 vs. San Diego State |
| 19 | Navy | 9-3 | 12 | 4/11 vs. No. 11 Virginia |
| 20 | Dartmouth | 7-2 | NR | 4/11 at No. 2 Boston College |
Also considered: Denver, Georgetown, High Point, Johns Hopkins, Notre Dame, Oregon, Princeton
Nike/US Lacrosse Rankings
Division I Men | Division I Women
Division II Men | Division II Women
Division III Men | Division III Women
HOT
Colorado (+3)
Colorado bounced back from a surprising loss to Denver in the best way possible, avenging an earlier overtime loss to USC with a 10-7 win over Trojans on Friday. Colorado will host the inaugural Pac-12 championship later this month and would like nothing more than to be the No. 1 seed. A win at Stanford on Friday would go a long ways towards making that a reality.
Penn (+2)
Trailing 11-10 late in the game on Saturday at Dartmouth, the Quakers ralied to score the final three goals of the game for a 13-11 victory. The Quakers have been the top program in the Ivy League over the last decade and that doesn't appear to be changing anytime soon. Penn's top three scorers — Gabby Rosenzweig, Zoe Belodeau, and Erin Barry — are all underclassmen, and Belodeau, a freshman, was the hero on Saturday. Belodeau had four goals in the win, including the go-ahead goal with 6:19 to play and the insurance goal with 2:40 left.
Virginia Tech (+2)
Virginia Tech has now beaten three teams this season — Louisville, Notre Dame and Syracuse — that it had never beaten before. None was more impressive than the comeback against Syracuse on Saturday. Trailing by four goals with under eight minutes to play, the Hokies scored four straight to tie it only to see Syracuse regain the lead with just over two minutes to play.
Taylor Caskey forced overtime on a free position goal with 1:29 left and then Tristan McGinley scored the game-winning goal in the second overtime. Virginia Tech has tied the school record for wins in season (11) and its four ACC wins is a program record.
Northwestern (+2)
The Wildcats completed a sweep of the nation's top Midwest programs, beating Ohio State and Notre Dame last weekend and scoring 20 goals in both games. Since falling to North Carolina on March 17, Northwestern has won six straight games to improve to 11-3.
NOT
Navy (-7)
Navy has no bad losses — Boston College, Florida and Loyola — among its 9-3 record, but none of its nine wins have come against teams in consideration for the Top 20. Navy led both Boston College and Loyola by three goals and had an eight-goal lead over Florida before losing all of those contests. A chance to pick up a signature win awaits on Wednesday when No. 11 Virginia visits Annapolis.
USC (-4)
Since starting its Pac 12 slate with a 4-0 record, the Trojans have lost four of their last five games, including losses to Colorado and Oregon over the weekend. One key swing for USC versus last year has been trying to replace the graduated Michaela Michael on the draw. Opponents have a 163-140 advantage over the Trojans this year and this weekend Colorado won 15-of-19 on Friday and Oregon won 22-of-31 on Sunday.
Loyola (-3)
Loyola gained a minor measure of revenge for last year's shocking Patriot League championship game loss to Navy, beating the Mids 16-12 on Saturday to take control of the league's regular season race. However, the Greyhounds eight-game winning streak came to an end earlier in the week with a 12-11 overtime loss to a Syracuse team that had been struggling. Loyola trailed by four in the second half in that game and almost came back to win it, but could not complete the comeback.
IN
Dartmouth
The Big Green are back in the rankings after a one-week hiatus. Dartmouth gave Penn everything it could handle before the Quakers scored the final three goals of the game to pull out a 13-11 win. Dartmouth faces a pivotal week with a road trip to No. 2 Boston College on Wednesday and then a Saturday game at Cornell, a team coming off of a disappointing loss to Brown.
OUT
Denver (previously 19)
The Pioneers were unable to carry the momentum from their victory over Colorado, falling to Georgetown 8-7 last Wednesday. It was the fourth time this season that Denver was held to single digit scoring, and the Pioneers have lost all four of those games (Stony Brook, Virginia Tech, Temple and Georgetown).