NAIA Women's Basketball D II Coaches' Poll
SOU NO. 10, EOU No. 21
KANSAS CITY, MO. – The Mustangs of Morningside (Iowa) are No. 1 for the 28th time in school history in the latest edition of the 2014-15 NAIA Division II Women’s Basketball Coaches’ Top 25 Poll, the national office announced Tuesday. The unanimous top-squad collected all 14 first-place votes and 374 total points for an eighth-consecutive poll.
Morningside (26-0) leads NAIA Division II in victories this season – but as the year winds down – each win is becoming increasingly more difficult. Both of the Mustangs’ two victories since last week’s rating were by a combined 15 points – at Mount Marty (S.D.) (65-61) on Feb. 4 and at Midland (Neb.) (66-55) on Feb. 7
Morningside’s Madison Braun iced the Mount Marty triumph with a pair of free throws after the Lancers got within 63-61. The Midland contest was tied 55-55 with less than three minutes remaining, when the top-team closed the game on an 11-0 scoring run. The Mustangs’ Ashlynn Muhl – one of four Morningside players to post double-digit points – helped her team stay perfect by leading all scorers with 15 points and a game-high nine rebounds.
Morningside hosts Dordt (Iowa) tomorrow evening, where it owns a school record 34-consecutive home wins at the Rosen Verdoorn Sports Center.
Davenport (Mich.) (24-0) remains at No. 2 with 362 points. The Panthers are fresh off adding two more wins to their resume by throttling both Lawrence Tech (Mich.), 88-52, on Feb. 4, and Northwestern Ohio on Feb. 7, 69-53. In the win over the Racers, Shaina Johnson scored a career-high 23 points, including five from 3-point range.
Davenport is now 18-0 in Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference (WHAC) play, and continues to keep pace with the Mustangs as the only undefeated schools remaining in the 2014-15 season. The Panthers have been ranked in 98-straght Top 25 Polls, dating back to Feb. 7, 2007, when the team was No. 25.
Davenport travels to take on Indiana Tech tomorrow night.
Four of the top five schools in the poll hold the same slot from last week’s rankings, as Concordia (Neb.) (25-1) (350 points) remains at No. 3. The Bulldogs have won 20 games in-a-row since dropping to No. 1 Morningside, 78-70, on Nov. 15. Concordia takes on Midland tomorrow.
In at No. 4 is Saint Xavier (Ill.) (23-2) (338 points), and moving up to fifth is Cardinal Stritch (Wis.) (21-3) (325 points), leap-frogging Indiana Wesleyan.
No. 10 Southern Oregon jumped up three positions in the rating, the highest of any program. Conversely, thirteenth-ranked Purdue Calumet (Ind.) dropped five spots from the Feb. 3 poll.
St. Thomas (Fla.) finds itself as the only newcomer in the poll today, notched at No. 24.
Ten conferences/Association of Independent Institutions/unaffiliated groups are represented throughout the Top 25, led by four teams from the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference, Crossroads League and Great Plains Athletic Conference. The Midlands Collegiate Athletic Conference and WHAC have the second-most teams in the poll with three.
The poll was voted upon by a panel of head coaches representing each of the conferences and the Association of Independent Institutions. For the entire 2014-15 NAIA Division II Women’s Basketball Coaches’ Top 25 Poll schedule, click here.
The ninth edition of the regular-season Top 25 Poll will be announced Feb. 17.
Notes: (All information dates back to the 1999 – 2000 season) The top four schools are frozen in the same positions as last week’s release, as the back-end of the top 10 shuffled once again… Two Great Plains Athletic Conference members – No. 1 Morningside (Iowa) and No. 3 Concordia (Neb.) – continue to claim a top-three position… The Crossroads League has three-consecutive schools in the top eight… Preseason No. 1 Saint Francis (Ind.) moved up one spot from last week to No. 8… Indiana Wesleyan has appeared at the top of the poll on 35 occasions, the most of any program, followed by Morningside with 28 and Saint Francis with 24… Fourteen different teams have earned the No. 1 ranking all-time… Three schools have spent an entire season ranked No. 1: Morningside in 2008-09, College of the Ozarks (Mo.) in 2007-08 and Saint Francis in 1999-2000… In the last 13 years, six teams that were ranked No. 1 in the preseason have gone on to win the national championship, with the last being Northwestern (Iowa) in 2011 and 2012… Morningside (138) and Saint Xavier (Ill.) (125) are the only teams that have been ranked in the Top 25 for over 100 consecutive weeks… No. 2 Davenport (Mich.) has earned 98 Top 25s in-a-row… Since 2007, the only national champions to hail from a conference other than the Great Plains Athletic Conference are Indiana Wesleyan (2007, 2013) and Saint Francis (2014).
2014-15 NAIA Division II Women’s Basketball Coaches’ Top 25 Poll (Feb. 10)
|
RANK |
LAST WEEK^ |
SCHOOL (1ST PLACE VOTES) |
2014-15 RECORD |
TOTAL POINTS |
|
1 |
1 |
Morningside (Iowa) (14) |
26-0 |
374 |
|
2 |
2 |
Davenport (Mich.) |
24-0 |
362 |
|
3 |
3 |
Concordia (Neb.) |
25-1 |
350 |
|
4 |
4 |
Saint Xavier (Ill.) |
23-2 |
338 |
|
5 |
6 |
Cardinal Stritch (Wis.) |
21-3 |
325 |
|
6 |
5 |
Indiana Wesleyan |
22-4 |
315 |
|
7 |
7 |
Marian (Ind.) |
22-4 |
302 |
|
8 |
9 |
Saint Francis (Ind.) |
19-7 |
280 |
|
9 |
10 |
Tennessee Wesleyan |
23-2 |
278 |
|
10 |
13 |
Southern Oregon |
21-3 |
250 |
|
11 |
12 |
Oklahoma Wesleyan |
22-3 |
233 |
|
12 |
11 |
Jamestown (N.D.) |
18-6 |
231 |
|
13 |
8 |
Purdue Calumet (Ind.) |
18-6 |
228 |
|
14 |
14 |
Menlo (Calif.) |
18-4 |
222 |
|
15 |
16 |
Hastings (Neb.) |
17-7 |
219 |
|
16 |
15 |
College of Saint Mary (Neb.) |
18-6 |
199 |
|
17 |
17 |
Robert Morris (Ill.) |
18-4 |
184 |
|
18 |
18 |
College of the Ozarks (Mo.) |
17-6 |
169 |
|
19 |
21 |
Huntington (Ind.) |
18-6 |
165 |
|
20 |
22 |
Briar Cliff (Iowa) |
19-7 |
140 |
|
21 |
23 |
Eastern Oregon |
20-5 |
128 |
|
22 |
20 |
Siena Heights (Mich.) |
20-6 |
110 |
|
23 |
24 |
Union (Ky.) |
16-6 |
78 |
|
24 |
RV |
St. Thomas (Fla.) |
19-4 |
69 |
|
25 |
25 |
Madonna (Mich.) |
15-9 |
60 |
|
|
Others Receiving Votes: Point Park (Pa.) 57; Southwestern (Kan.) 50; Southeastern (Fla.) 43; Rio Grande (Ohio) 39; Valley City State (N.D.) 38; Tabor (Kan.) 36; Ashford (Iowa) 15; Friends (Kan.) 13; Northwestern (Iowa) 11; Olivet Nazarene (Ill.) 8; Webber International (Fla.) 6.
^ 2014-15 NAIA Division II Women’s Basketball Coaches’ Top 25 Poll (Feb. 3)