While our College Power Rankings can always been found on our permanent rankings page, every Wednesday during the season, we will post the current week’s edition here on the front page to facilitate discussion in the comments and serve as a permalink for each week’s rankings.
With none of the tournament’s top four seeds making the semifinals, Centex really realigned our Top 25. Surprise champions Northeastern shoot up fourteen spots to #10 while finalists Minnesota see a boost up to #12 and third place finisher Tufts recovers back into the Top 15.
Going the other direction after the weekend in Austin, Colorado and Wisconsin disappointingly fall out of the Top 10 to #13 and #15 respectively.
UCLA‘s struggles in Austin drag down an entire block of idle West Coast squads. The cluster of teams from 16-22 are rife with conflicting results and feel like they could be rearranged in almost any order; we’ll hope Northwest Challenge provides some clarity this upcoming weekend.
Utah, the last semifinalist from Centex, make their rankings debut this spring at the expense of West Chester who suffered a brutal loss to Ottawa at Jersey Devil.
The only real mover this week is Brigham Young, who slot back into the Top 5 after an undefeated weekend at Northwest Challenge, including a second victory over new #6 Cal Poly SLO. It was a banner year for the CHI program and while they may not have an opportunity to improve their ranking in the postseason, they are poised to remain relevant at the top of the division in the coming years.
The only other three teams in action this past weekend — #14 Southern California, #17 Washington, and #23 South Carolina — all performed to expectations in wrapping up their regular season slate, staying put heading into the regular season’s final weekend.
D-III Women’s Power Rankings
Rank
Team
Change
Prior
Dropped from rankings:Lehigh (3), Amherst (11), Smith (25)
With a dozen ranked teams in action this past weekend, there were big changes up and down the board — except at the very top. Bates Cold Front only tightened their stranglehold on the #1 spot with an undefeated weekend at Live Free and Sky in New Hampshire.
The biggest news of the week was action at the #3 spot. Previous holders Lehigh, fall all the way out of the rankings with a hugely disappointing performance in their sanctioned season debut. Meanwhile, previously unranked Middlebury fly up the board all the way up to take their spot after a very impressive performance at Southerns. Their sole loss on the weekend was on double game point to D-I #23 UNC Wilmington; the Lady Pranksters also notched a victory over Carleton Eclipse, dropping them down to #8.
Also impressing this weekend were #4 RPI and #5 Truman State. Strut gave Bates one of their closest games of the season en route to a second place finish at Live Free and Sky. TSUnami dominated Meltdown in Rockford, going 7-0 on the weekend without giving up more than five goals to any opponent. Their final opponent, Winona State, also sees a nice bump up to #12 this week, going 5-0 against teams not named Truman State.
While they had a winning weekend overall in Tier 3 of Centex, a big loss to Virginia sees St. Olaf slip a little to #13, especially as their multiple losses to Carleton also look a little worse after this weekend.
A pair of new teams grace our big board this week. #20 Skidmore enjoyed a decent weekend at Jersey Devil, including wins over previously ranked Lehigh and Amherst; perhaps they can challenge RPI at the top of the Metro East come Regionals. North Park Allihopa reenter the rankings at #21 on the back of a 6-2 weekend in Rockford.
Meanwhile, a trio of mid-table teams fall to the back end. #23 Catholic may be the Atlantic Coast’s top team, but their resume is not aging well; they don’t own a victory over a top 100 team this spring and remained idle all March while other teams got more connected. #24 Georgia College took three losses at Southerns, including a four-point to then unranked Middlebury. #25 Trinity endured their first two defeats of the spring at Centex, but the 15-4 drubbing by LSU is an albatross on their ledger.
Falling out this week are the aforementioned Lehigh, along with Amherst and Smith. That will sting for Gravity, as the Ohio Valley currently sits with just a single nationals bid; less is on the line for Amherst and Smith, as either way they’ll be competing in a max-bid New England, albeit against almost a dozen contenders.
Not that there’s much shame in losing to the #1 team in the land, but Carleton GoP were blown out by Middlebury and have to drop at least a little for the dull performance. They slide back a couple spots to #4
Both Bryant and Luther kicked off their sanctioned slate this past weekend. The reigning national champs unsurprisingly demolished all comers at a round robin hosted on their campus to hang onto their #5 spot. LUFDA acquitted themselves well at Southerns, winning their pool and taking two victories off previously D-I ranked Emory; their bracket run was cut short by South Florida, but they still manage a respectable seventh place finish — good enough to move into our Top 10.
Wesleyan has still not opened their spring account and finally fall due to their idleness. If you don’t have any sanctioned games heading into the regular season’s final week, you aren’t a Top 10 team.
An undefeated champion at Mill City Throwdown, Bates not only moves up five spots to #20, they also drag Colby back into the rankings as the teams had traded a pair of games earlier this month.
Conditions and wind were so terrible on Saturday of Spring Awakening that most games at Bowdoin‘s long-awaited season debut were decided by the flip. Stoned Clown unfortunately came out on the wrong end of all those flips and struggled through pool play. While they recovered Sunday to win the tournament, they still slide all the way back to #24 in our rankings, though we expect better things from Bowdoin moving forward.
In their first action of the spring, Haverford were blown out by Villanova at Hucktastic Spring and drop from our big board.
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