The new poll is out – Terps still #1

By Todd Carton –

While Maryland and Albany continued to hold the top two spots in the week 10 Maverick Media men’s lacrosse poll, much of the rest of the top 20 was shuffled like a team’s first and second midfield lines. In fact, the only other teams occupying the same spot they did in week nine were Notre Dame (15) and Robert Morris (19).

Teams from the Big Ten occupied four of the top 11 spots. Rutgers’ loss to Maryland nudged them down two spots to number 10 while Penn State benefitted from it first ever win over Johns Hopkins with a three spot jump from number 14 to number 11. Hopkins also moved three spots but in the opposite direction falling to number seven. Michigan, which looks to be in the process of completing a second consecutive B1G swoon, saw its three week run in the top 20 come to an end although the Wolverines still received enough votes to land in the 25^th spot.

Duke (3), Syracuse (9) and Virginia (15) joined Notre Dame as the representatives of the ACC while the Ivy League placed three squads in the top 20 with Yale leading the way at number 5. The Elis were backed up immediately by Cornell at number six and Penn made the jump from 24^th to number 20.

However, the honor of the biggest leap of the week goes to Georgetown. After dropping a game to Loyola (Maryland), the Hoyas rode the strength of a road win at Villanova to vault from 25^th to 17^th. Villanova has now dropped two straight and has fallen to number 16. The Bucknell Bison – one of the season’s surprise teams – turned over one spot falling from 11 to 12 despite a convincing 15-6 win over Lafayette.

The wise guy who voted for UMBC in the week nine poll didn’t repeat the gesture this week despite the fact that the Retrievers kept Binghamton off the scoreboard for the game’s final 47:02 in their 5-2 win over the Bearcats.

If the men’s poll was busily changing lines, the women’s poll – at least at the top – held the field like a trio of two way middies. The top 10 was unchanged from the previous week with the two remaining undefeated teams, stony Brook and Boston College, holding on to the top two spots with defending champion Maryland slotting inside the near pipe at number three.

The second 10, however, scrambled like players trying to run down a ground ball. The biggest beneficiary of all this commotion was the Princeton Tigers who, by virtue of their strong showing in an 11-10 loss to Maryland which they followed with an 18-4 domestication of the Yale Bulldogs, shot up from number 26 to tie Notre Dame for the last spot in the top 20.

The ACC remains the dominant conference with six of its eight teams in the top 20 though I’m of the opinion that Syracuse, which has lost five of its last seven games is riding the weight of its reputation to cling to the 19^th spot. Northwestern and Penn State, Maryland’s final two regular season opponents, joined the Terps as the Big Ten representatives in the poll at number seven and 14 respectively.

Dropping down to the DIII men’s poll, Salisbury continued its hot play with a 20-10 win over Mary Washington. The Sea Gulls fifth consecutive win lifted them two pots to number seven. Rochester Institute of Technology and York held on to the top two spots.