Elmira pulled off the double play, earning the No. 1 spot in both the USCHO.com Division III Women’s Poll as well as holding the top spot in the USCHO.com Division III Women’s East Region Pairwise Rankings (PWR). Elmira was idle last week, but finishes out its regular season schedule with two games against Division I school Findlay. Elmira’s only two losses this year came against a Division I school, Wayne State, back in November.
This week’s top ten teams are exactly the same as last week, as ranked teams won all matches played against unranked squads. The only exceptions were a midweek game between No. 4 Middlebury and No. 6 Williams that ended in a 1-1 tie and a pair of games between No. 3 Manhattanville and No. 9 Rensselaer that ended in two victories for the Valiants.
No. 7 Wis.-River Falls, No. 8 Wis.-Stevens Point, and No. 10 St. Thomas all finished in a tie with six points at the top of the USCHO.com Division III Women’s West PWR.
There is some potential for teams to swap positions, as No. 4 Middlebury plays No. 2 Bowdoin on Friday. These two teams met up for a 1-1 tie in January, one of just two blemishes on the Bowdoin record. On Saturday, the Polar Bears face No. 6 Williams to close out the season. The previous Bowdoin vs. Williams game ended a 3-1 Bowdoin win.
The USCHO.com Poll is compiled by U.S. College Hockey Online, and consists of 12 voters, all coaches of Division III programs.
The East and West Region PairWise Rankings attempt to mimic the process used by the NCAA Division III Selection Committee to determine participants for the women’s hockey tournament. A team is only compared against Division III teams within that team’s region.
The PWR can be reformatted and redistributed by any media outlet or person, provided USCHO’s URL (http://www.uscho.com/) accompanies the results.
