You can quibble with the sogginess of Duke’s 17-8 defeat of Mercer (and the Blue Devils probably didn’t completely enjoy being outside for a couple hours in wet, near-freezing conditions).

And you can quibble with the sloppiness, since Duke had 21 turnovers and spread them evenly throughout the game (though the aforementioned weather conditions played a bit of a role).

But there’s no denying how impressive the preseason No. 1 started out Saturday, scrambling to an 8-1 lead after a quarter and pushing it out to 13-3 by the midpoint. It was quickly clear this would not be the day for a random February stumble.

Joe Robertson is now back after missing all of last season with a torn ACL, contributing four goals and an assist in his season debut for the Blue Devils (3-0). Princeton transfer Michael Sowers becomes more integrated into Duke’s offense by the game, evidenced by how he collected four goals and two assists against Mercer.

The Blue Devils will get better. They almost always do. Nonetheless, they’re beginning their push from a solid place by mid-February standards.

Editor’s Note: Why are Ivy League teams still included? Check out our explanation from last week’s Top 20 to learn more.

Nike/US Lacrosse
Division I Men’s Top 20

Also considered (alphabetical order): Albany (0-0), Brown (0-0), Bryant (1-0), Bucknell (0-0), Navy (0-0), St. John’s (1-0)

Nike/US Lacrosse Rankings

Division I Men | Division I Women
Division II Men | Division II Women
Division III Men | Division III Women

HOT

Virginia (No change)

Simply getting a game in was a victory for the Cavaliers, who were supposed to have an open date, scrambled to schedule a game against Army and then saw it delayed by a day and moved to a turf field.

No matter. Virginia earned a 14-9 triumph as Matt Moore scored three times in his season debut, Ian Laviano became the 18^th player in program history to hit the 100-goal mark for his career and Bobby Gavin made 12 saves in his first career start while replacing the unavailable Alex Rode. It wasn’t as spectacular a showing as the 20-goal burst against Towson to open the year, but it was an effective all-around performance.

North Carolina (No change)

As explosive as the Tar Heels’ offense is, their defense warrants some early plaudits as well. Take Saturday’s 18-7 defeat of Jacksonville. North Carolina kept Jacksonville to 24 total shots. The Dolphins had scored 19 goals just three days earlier against Bellarmine.

Playing in abysmal conditions, the Tar Heels didn’t completely put away Jacksonville until the second half. But with a multitude of threats (Chris Gray had four goals and three assists, and he was one of six multi-goal scorers), Joe Breschi’s bunch ultimately coasted to a second victory in a row.

Denver (No change)

The Pioneers looked as sharp as they have in any of their four games, drubbing Air Force 15-6 in a game moved from outdoors in Denver to indoors in Colorado Springs.

The attack tandem of Ethan Walker (five goals, two assists) and Jackson Morrill (two goals, four assists) smoothly handled business for the Pioneers. But the most eye-popping number in the box score stemmed from Denver’s ride. Air Force was just 12 of 21 on clears, including 1 of 7 in the third quarter.

Loyola (No change)

It was as easy as 1-2-3 for Kevin Lindley, except for the fact there was nothing easy at all about the Greyhounds’ 8-7 victory at Richmond on Sunday. Lindley had taken only three shots in the first 56 minutes but deposited a goal with 3:18 to go to pull Loyola within 7-6, then he tied it with a transition tally with 1:06 to go. He finished things off 61 seconds into overtime to seal the triumph.

This won’t go down as a dominant showing for the Greyhounds, but there’s a lot for them to take away from beating a quality opponent despite managing only 10 shots on goal in the first three quarters.

NOT

Army (-1)

There’s no reason to ding the Black Knights much for their opening 14-9 loss at Virginia. They played a competitive first quarter, but things got away from them in the middle half of the game. Army scored just twice in a span of more than 36 minutes, and it’s hard to beat anyone (let alone Virginia) with that sort of a drought.

Nonetheless, both Aidan Byrnes (three goals) and Brendan Nichtern (two goals, three assists) had some success, something Army hopes will carry over into this week’s trip to the Carrier Dome to face Syracuse.

Richmond (-1)

Much like Army, it’s hard to penalize the Spiders much for dropping an overtime decision to Loyola. If anything, they offered a reminder of what a difficult opponent they can be after bottling up the Greyhounds and keeping them out of transition for much of the day.

And who might that reminder be targeted at? Perhaps North Carolina (Feb. 21) and Duke (March 5), who are also scheduled to visit the River City? Or maybe Virginia, which is supposed to play host to Richmond on April 3. No one should be surprised if the Spiders make life miserable for any or all of those powers.