LaxTV Forums | A Forum About The MCLA

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http://www.uslia.com/news.php?action=fullnews&id=33

Some very scattered first place votes.

Its so hard to vote on alyone right now with so many of the teams in the top 25 having not played a game yet, but it was interesting to see western washington not ranked higher, they sound like a really strong squad. I'm also glad to see St. Johns move up after impressive 3 wins. No reason why Fort/UVSC should stay 2&3 if other teams are playing and impressing voters.

Nice to see some movement by St. Johns. Impressive win vs. Texas Arlington. The next couple polls will be a little more accurate than these first ones, given that half the teams in the poll haven't even seen the field yet. As far as I am concerned, the #1 spot is open for the taking in a year where no teams have played a national tournament before, those teams at the top are there to move when other non#1 teams get impressive wins.

I see from some of the leagues websites that there are a few games of interest this weekend...
Harding vs. UT-Arlington on Saturday (Feb 26)
Puget Sound vs. Pac Lutheran on Sunday (Feb 27)
Any other games in the top 25 worth noting for this weekend?

Also, at least in the SELC, early season is when most Div A teams will schedule B team opponents (Emory, Davidson, etc.). With this being the case, it's pretty difficult to tell yet who might be more deserving.

For me, polls don't really mean much until after spring break.

Someone made a comment about Western Washington University, the team is very good, but they lost to PLU by 2 earlier this season. PLU was in control 7-2 going into the 4th, and once rookies came in, Western couldn't help but make that game look closer. As of now, Western is probably in about the correct place, but they have a few big games coming up, and they are young. After watching the PLU vs. WWU game, I'm sure WWU can beat anyone on any given day, but PLU kept them from getting any offensive momentum until the 4th.

As for more big games...

Friday March 4th, PLU @ WWU
Sunday March 6th UPS @ WWU

and I agree about being tough to place people when half the league hasn't played any games yet.

Hugh Nunn wrote:For me, polls don't really mean much until after spring break.

I certainly agree. After spring break, most teams will be full throttle into league play and we will start to see the cream of the crop in each league showing through.

After looking at the way UC irvine is destroying every team they are playing, i am suprised that they are back at #7. Why wouldn't they be in front of the teams in the top 5 who haven't even played yet? I'm not complaining, seeing UVSC is still up there, but putting up that many points against any team is impressive, especially against 4 teams. I think with their impressive start, they should have broken the top 5 already.

UC Irvine was not even ranked before... so #7 isn't too bad.

its not bad, but seeing that no one knows anything about anyone in D-II, preseason rankings shouldn't hold much weight. Any DII team putting up around 20 points a game would get my vote to be in the top 5. Why would anyone vote for UVSC or Fort above Irvine if we havn't even played a game yet. Hey... keep voting for us, but what will a team like UC irvine have to do to be considered a top 5 team?

ktrost58 wrote:what will a team like UC irvine have to do to be considered a top 5 team?

Maybe beat a top 5 team, or for those teams to loose games to lesser ranked opponents.

Any DII team putting up around 20 points a game would get my vote to be in the top 5

They almost lost to unranked and 0-4 Biola with the score being 10-8.

Considering UC Irvine was 1-10 last year and 0-6 against WCLL B teams, I think #7 for them is more than fair. If they can beat a more well known top WCLL B team (Claremont or San Diego), that should convince voters they are for real and they will move up accordingly. They are definitely better than last year but until they beat one of those teams, I can't see how they could be ranked ahead of them.

Here's a question, they only beat one ranked team and move up to #7? I don't know but to me thats absurd. Yes they have been winning big but two of those wins came against teams who were preseason ranked numbers 5 and 11 (last) in the LSA. They only beat the number 21 nationally ranked team and all of a sudden their top ten? I'm sorry but to be top ten you need to beat someone in the top ten. I'm not saying that they can't but they need to prove that they can beat someone that high before ranking them there.

I would just keep in mind that the B poll is still very early, much like laxpower. We don't have an established dominance in the B like we do in A division, so a little slack is needed this early in the season. I will fully expect teams such as my own and UC Irvine to move all over the place in the next few months. Some OOC games coming up will give us a better idea of where more teams fit in, and after Blaine, hopefully we'll have a much better understanding of which conferences have the better teams and competition. The other issue is some teams don't have any tough games on the schedule, but still expect to be a top team. Simon Fraser had that issue a few years ago. They weren't travelling, and you better believe it is expensive when they get screwed on the exchange rate, and voters didn't know where to place them in the top 25. I have an idea to help this out in the mean time, I'll get to it tomorrow night, and hopefully it will help.