Shamrock Lax Preseason Top 25 Div. B poll is out!

by **OAKS** on Fri Dec 15, 2006 2:37 pm

Figured talking about A and B polls in one thread would get confusing

Division B:
http://www.collegelax.us/poll.php?div=b

13 Westminster College

Pretty brazen for voters to put a team that didn't exist last year into the top 25. I guess voters put a lot of emphasis on fall ball. People's thoughts? For a comparison Florida beat FSU in Div A in fall ball and yet they only received votes.

**Sponsor**

by **TheNino57** on Fri Dec 15, 2006 3:20 pm

Hey Oaks,
I caught that too when I was perusing the polls. I even remember saying to myself "that's impressive since Westminster hasn't played a game yet."

I don't really think fall ball results hold any weight. For some programs, some players will stay behind to focus on school stuff, not be enrolled yet, or any number of reasons. CWU held a tournament this fall and Montana came out and only brought their captains and their new recruits/young players.

by **Kyle Berggren** on Fri Dec 15, 2006 4:22 pm

I agree the Fall stuff doesn't hold a lot of weight, but, if a conference (for instance the RMLC) votes a team (Westminster) as the #2, should folks outside of that conference put another team or group of teams ahead of them?

It's the pre-season poll, & mine looks very little like what the combined poll looks like, but we know it's going to change. I for one voted Westminster a lot higher than I wanted to, but I knew where I wanted to put UNC, Fort, & UVSC... It would have been tough to put a team that those teams themselves voted at #2 (with more 1st place votes than the #1) outside of the poll. I had a tough time with it anyway, maybe other voters did not, but I struggled.

by **Sonny** on Fri Dec 15, 2006 5:41 pm

Good call Oaks.

by **camthrax** on Fri Dec 15, 2006 8:32 pm

No WCLL team in the top 10?! Only 1 WCLL team in the top 20?! Who votes for this stuff?..

by **TheNino57** on Fri Dec 15, 2006 8:37 pm

camthrax wrote:Who votes for this stuff?..

Here is the link:
http://www.collegelax.us/pollinfo.php

Here are the names:
2007 Shamrock Lacrosse MCLA Division B Top 25 Poll Voters (in alphabetical order, 24 total):
Mark Bates, Patrick Benko, Kyle Berggrem, Bill Bowman, Mark Brown, Jean Claude de Raouix, Boz Crowther, Matt Gardiner, Will Gilner, Rob Graff, Mark Hellenack, Jim Holleran, Derek de Lemos, Brian Mosher, Peter Moosbrugger, Dan Morris, Kevin Perkins, Sonny Pieper, David Reed, Ethan Ritz, John Robinette, Andy Sharp, Jason Stockton, and Corbin Wilhelmi.

by **OAKS** on Fri Dec 15, 2006 9:31 pm

camthrax wrote:No WCLL team in the top 10?! Only 1 WCLL team in the top 20?! Who votes for this stuff?..

Who else would you have in there? If you take a look at last year's end of the season top 25, the only WCLL teams in there were San Diego & Claremont.

Biola didn't travel out of conference & only played 1 OOC game.
UCI didn't travel out of conference & lost their 3 OOC games at home.
Santa Cruz didn't travel or play OOC games.

In fact it looks like Claremont was the only WCLL team to travel out of conference and something like half the WCLL teams didn't even play any OOC games. Kind of hard for pollsters to accurately gauge them against the rest of the country. (yeah I know plenty of other conferences are the same way)

by **BigheadTodd** on Fri Dec 15, 2006 9:57 pm

I would like to go on record now by saying I think that Westminster will actually finish in the top ten. I think a lot of people will see how big of a difference a great coach and tremendous school support will make. Just looking at their website shows me how tight of a ship Mase is running.

by **sunshinelax11** on Sat Dec 16, 2006 1:03 am

Hearing all that i am about westminster; i do think they will finish in the top ten by the end of the season but i think that since they didnt have a team last year they shouldn't be voted in the top 25 just b/c of fall ball. Lets not forget this is the first poll. Thet them play a few games and then decide where they should be.

by **OAKS** on Sat Dec 16, 2006 2:00 am

Totally agree

by **Timbalaned** on Sat Dec 16, 2006 3:55 am

Also interesting to see that the top 3 teams are only seperated by a total of 20 points. I am too lazy to try and look for the voting structure, but I can't imagine that is a lot of votes seperating them. Should be a good battle for the top spot this year.

by **Jay Wisnieski** on Sat Dec 16, 2006 4:43 am

camthrax wrote:No WCLL team in the top 10?! Only 1 WCLL team in the top 20?!

Well, maybe if the teams other than San Diego and Claremont would have been successful, the votes would have been different. What teams other than those two even deserve that high of a ranking? All the other WCLL teams were mediocre last year...why should they be ranked as high as the top 10?

by **Sonny** on Sat Dec 16, 2006 11:03 am

OAKS wrote: Who else would you have in there? If you take a look at last year's end of the season top 25, the only WCLL teams in there were San Diego & Claremont.

Biola didn't travel out of conference & only played 1 OOC game.
UCI didn't travel out of conference & lost their 3 OOC games at home.
Santa Cruz didn't travel or play OOC games.

Additionally, San Jose State & UNLV are not eligible for the national Div. B rankings as they are classified by the MCLA Board of Directors as a Div. A school (due to their 1-A football team).

by **biola_defense** on Sat Dec 16, 2006 11:56 am

camthrax wrote:No WCLL team in the top 10?! Only 1 WCLL team in the top 20?! Who votes for this stuff?..

There's actually 2 WCLL teams in the top 20 if you look closely.

by **SDSULAX** on Sat Dec 16, 2006 7:27 pm

Can we say Pepperdine and BIOLA?