Salisbury Volleyball And St. Mary's Women's Soccer Teams Gain First-Ever National Rankings
The Salisbury University volleyball team and the St. Mary's College of Maryland women's soccer team were both rewarded for early-season success this week by earning their first-ever national rankings.
Salisbury continues to record program milestones during the 2008 season as the Sea Gulls are nationally ranked for the first time in school history. Salisbury is ranked No. 24 in the latest American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Division III Coaches Top 25 Poll released Tuesday. The AVCA has done Division III polls since 1992.
Salisbury earned 62 points and is ahead of No. 25 Eastern University (20-1). For the past two weeks the Sea Gulls were one spot away from breaking into the top 25 as SU received votes but not enough to be ranked.
The Sea Gulls have won a nation best 23 consecutive matches and have not lost since August 29 to No. 1 Juniata College. Salisbury has the most wins of all of the top 25 teams in the latest poll. No. 3 La Verne (12-0) is the only undefeated team ranked. SU is the only new team to the AVCA poll this week.
A reason for Salisbury being ranked is its 3-2 victory over former No. 20 Christopher Newport University (17-4) last Friday on the road in the Freeman Center. The Captains are still ranked ahead of the Sea Gulls in the latest poll at No. 23. CNU earned 84 points and just missed being ranked No. 21 by three points.
The Sea Gulls improved their record to 23-1 with Tuesday's 3-0 CAC triumph on "Dig Pink" night over Capital Athletic Conference rival Stevenson University. "Dig Pink" night encouraged to wear pink to show their support for cancer awareness.
Here is the link for this week's AVCA Division III women's Top 25 poll: http://www.avca.org/divisions/division-three-women/poll-5/
In women's soccer, St. Mary's also achieved a program milestone on Tuesday afternoon when The National Soccer Coaches Association of America/adidas® announced this week's Division III National Poll. St. Mary's earned a ranking of No. 25, marking the first time in program history that the Seahawks have received a national ranking.
St. Mary's is off to an impressive start as the Seahawks are unbeaten in their first nine matches of 2008, owning a 6-0-3 mark thus far. SMCM is one of only seven squads ranked in this week's Top 25 that are currently unbeaten. And four of those teams are ranked in the top four: No. 1 Williams (7-0-0), No. 2. Lynchburg (10-0-2), No. 3. Wisconsin-Eau Claire (12-0-2), and No. 4. Messiah (10-0-2).
The Seahawks break into the Top 25 this week after receiving votes in last week's poll.
Factors contributing to St. Mary's national ranking were their 3-2 road victory over perennial regional power, Elizabethtown College, and a 2-2 draw with No. 9 Johns Hopkins University. The Seahawks have been an offensive threat, outscoring opponents 34 to 9.
For the second consecutive week, St. Mary's is fourth in the NSCAA/adidas® Middle Atlantic Regional Poll behind Johns Hopkins, Messiah, and Rowan.
The Seahawks were seventh in the September 23rd regional poll and 10th in the one for September 16th. The September 16th ranking was the first time since the 1990 season that SMCM had been regionally ranked.
St. Mary's has been idle since its 3-3 draw with the University of Mary Washington on October 1st but the Seahawks will return to action this Saturday (10/11) when they welcome Stevenson University to Seahawk Stadium for a Capital Athletic Conference tilt at noon.
Here is the link for this week's NSCAA Division III women's Top 25 poll: http://www.nscaa.com/seniorRes.php?it=857
