THIRD MDIA Div. B Top 25 Poll is out (3/23/06)!

[Sonny]

Sorry for the delays in getting this out folks.... I appreciate your patience.

LINK:
http://www.uslia.com/news.php?action=fullnews&id=435

[lincoln02]

sou in the top 25!

[CATLAX MAN]

Wow, 24 points separating the top 3 teams. A virtual deadlock.

[lil lady lax fan]

Definitely a head to head to head competition there.

Not sure about UC Irvine in #23. I think Biola's doing better than them this year, IMO.

[Dr. Jason Stockton]

lil' lady - Biola earned their way into my top-25 this week. . .

The USD vs. Claremont vs. St. John's discussion is a very interesting one. As a voter I had to give the nod to USD in that 3-way mess. . .mostly because the USD win came in late March, whereas the SJU win over USD and the Claremont win over SJU came in February, when teams really hadn't found their identity yet. . .but an argument could be made for any of the top-5 teams to be number 1 at this point. After Montana plays UVSC tomorrow that list of potential #1 teams will drop to 4.

Only one thing is for sure. . .the finals in Texas will be MUCH more interesting this year than they were in 2005. USD's toughest competition last year had to stay at home and follow Sonny's blog. . .the rest of the teams in Blaine were not in the same class as USD.

I think any of the top 5 teams could win this thing. It will be a lot of fun to watch.

[Jay Wisnieski]

Not sure about UC Irvine in #23.

I don't understand why they're there, either. Not counting their Division A losses, they're 2-5. To be fair, 3 of those losses were to #s 1, 2, and 3. Even with that said, I do wonder if a 2-5 team with 3 or 4 "quality losses" deserves to be ranked higher than a 4-2 team that lost both of their games to what I believe are "quality" opponents.

[cjwilhelmi]

lil' lady - Biola earned their way into my top-25 this week. . .

Same here. I also had CMU in as well since they beat IUPA. Just glancing over the top ten I think I had them all exact, except I switched 6 and 7. I'll find my poll later and see how I did.

[Andy Sharp]

I'm interested to see when others will take the Pioneer conference into consideration.

Looking at points I was feeling rather lonely with my votes their way and pulled back this past poll, questioning my logic that a team in a town with 2 pro lax teams can't be that bad.

I hope I'm not alone when I (hopefully with game data) throw a bone their way in upcoming polls.

If I missed the memo that they all blow, please forward that one over, so I can jump back on the wagon.

We should get our first indicator tonight when Rochester plays Grove City, but they aren't on anyone's voting radar either.

Please don't let me down PCLL & Grove City.

Sorry if I'm ruining your plans PCLL . . . a #12 AQ seed winning nationals would have been interesting to see, but hopefully not on this pollster's watch.

[lil lady lax fan]

The PCLL teams are an unknown quantity right now. Their season hasn't really gotten into full swing and most pollsters are probably waiting to see how they do. Also, if I remember correctly, most of their teams don't have any OOC games scheduled, or very few. Who knows, Andy, you may be right--they show up at Nationals and blow everybody away, or at least make a mark in the first round. We'll have to wait and see.

[gcclax33]

We'll try to make you and the CCLA proud tonight Andy, but I'm not sure how telling the result will be, just as you said. The CCLA's national reputation is marginal at best, with only Calvin garnering recognition. IUP, which had been ranked fairly highly, lost to Carnegie Mellon, and rather than ranking CMU, the pollsters just dropped IUP into the bottom of the top 25 (which I think is fair, but not representative).

Here in the north, we're going to find out more these next couple weeks, seeing as how we are finally able to play some games!

[ktrost58]

huge score.......... UVSC 17, Montana 12. UVSC took over the game after Montana was up 8-5 in the second.

[unclaxman23]

another big score unc 12 montana state 11. this was one of the best games that i have ever played in. Back and forth the entire day with neither team leading by more than 2 goals

[thedude]

Should UNC look to be in the top 10 next go 'round?

[Andy Sharp]

There are lots of great ranking indicator games, here's my growing list:

#04 Montana Lost to #5 UVSC 12-17
#05 Utah Valley State Upset #4 Montana 17-12
#06 St. Thomas Beat #38 Dordt 10-2
#07 Harding Beat #38 Dordt 6-1
#08 Montana State Lost to #13 UNC 11-12
#10 Creighton Lost to #38 Dordt 8-10
#12 Fort Lewis Lost to #5 UVSC 8-17
#13 Northern Colorado Upset #8 Montana State 12-11
#14 Davidson Lost to #17 Elon 6-7, Lost to #43 Appalachian State 7-8 in OT
#16 Western Washington Lost to #2 Claremont 3-19
#17 Elon Upset #14 Davidson 7-6
#18 Pacific Lutheran Lost to #4 Montana 14-18
#20 Southwestern Beat #21 Trinity 14-7
#21 Trinity Lost to #20 Southwestern 7-14, Lost to #33 St. Edward's 5-10
#22 Indiana of Pennsylvania Lost to #26 Carnegie Mellon 9-10
#23 California - Irvine Beat #34 Occidental 14-6
#26 Carnegie Mellon Upset #22 IUP 10-9, Lost to #40 Dayton 9-15
#28 Biola Upset #23 UC-Irvine 14-11
#30 Western Illinois Lost to #19 St. Louis 4-17
#33 St. Edward's Upset #21 Trinity 10-5
#34 Grove City Beat #41 Rochester 7-5
#34 Occidental Lost to #23 UC-Irvine 6-14
#38 Dordt College Upset #10 Creighton 10-8
#40 Dayton Upset #26 Carnegie Mellon 15-9
#41 Rochester Lost to #34 Grove City 5-7
#43 Appalachian State Upset #14 Beat Davidson 8-7 in OT
#44 Linfield Lost to #12 Fort Lewis 12-14
#?? Western State Upset #34 Occidental 13-11

I am sure every team or superfan has their own chest beating favorites, feel free to add your own.

[lil lady lax fan]

Andy,
One small edit you need to make. Claremont's loss to San Diego didn't drop them THAT low in the polls. They are ranked #2, not #16.

Also,one more to add to your list:
#15 Pepperdine Lost to #1 San Diego 3-14