Virginia Wesleyan remains unanimous No. 1 in NFCA Division III Top 25 poll

April 04, 2019 / By mobanmarket

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Virginia Wesleyan is the No. 1 team in the country for the second straight week, as the first 12 teams remained unchanged and the first 11 were unanimous choices of the NFCA Division III Top 25 poll committee.

Virginia Wesleyan (38-5), No. 5 Luther (36-2), 11th-ranked Messiah (39-3) and No. 12 St. Thomas (38-6) were the only teams in the top 12 that played last week. All four captured their conference championships, while the rest of those teams were idle as they await the NCAA Tournament.

Salisbury (34-4), Texas-Tyler (39-4) and Berry (36-6) continue in spots 2-4, while Texas Lutheran (41-3) stayed tied with Luther at fifth, Birmingham-Southern (36-8) is seventh, East Texas Baptist (34-8) is eighth, Emory (40-4) is ninth and Christopher Newport (34-7) is 10th.

The University of Chicago (25-8) moved into the No. 25 slot this week, while Gustavus Adolphus, DePauw and Otterbein dropped out. This is the last poll until after the NCAA Championship concludes at the end of the month in Salem, Va.

The NFCA Division III Top 25 Poll is selected by Division III head coaches representing the eight NCAA regions. Records through Sunday’s games are listed, with first-place votes in parentheses.

NFCA Division III Top 25 Poll – May 11, 2016

Rank Team 2016 Record Points Previous 1 Virginia Wesleyan (8) 37-5 200 1 2 Salisbury 34-4 192 2 3 Texas-Tyler 39-4 184 3 4 Berry 36-6 176 4 T5 Luther 36-2 164 T5   Texas Lutheran 41-3 164 T5 7 Birmingham-Southern 36-8 152 7 8 East Texas Baptist 34-8 144 8 9 Emory 40-4 136 9 10 Christopher Newport 34-7 128 10 11 Messiah 39-3 120 11 12 St. Thomas (Minn.) 38-6 109 12 13 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps 34-8-1 104 T14 14 Alma 32-8 98 13 15 Rowan 35-8 84 17 16 Ithaca 32-8 75 16 17 Moravian 35-4 63 19 18 Illinois Wesleyan 30-10 57 T14 19 Manhattanville 37-2 51 20 20 Linfield 29-13 47 22 21 Williams 32-9 46 21 22 Worcester Polytechnic Institute 35-7 28 24 23 Washington (Mo.) 34-10 22 23 24 St. Catherine 31-9 16 25 25 University of Chicago 25-8 14 RV

Others receiving votes: Whitworth 9, Wheaton (Ill.) 8, Cortland 5 and St. John Fisher 4.

Dropped out: Gustavus Adolphus, DePauw and Otterbein.