In a week where few favorites won, the top two teams in the country came away from their contests unscathed. St. Norbert, now unbeaten in their last 22 games, continued to roll, while the Soaring Eagles from Elmira took three crucial points from formerly fourth ranked Manhattanville.
The Green Knights received 14 of the 20 first place votes while Elmira received four.
Thanks undoubtedly in part to the upheaval from all these upsets, Plattsburgh — who fell to SUNYAC rival Potsdam, 4-2, in their only game of the weekend — remained in third. The new No. 4 team in the country also capitalized on the carnage above them.
St. Thomas continued to impress, vaulting four spots after their sweep of St. Mary’s. Their tough weekend on the road against Elmira dropped the Manhattanville Valiants one spot to fifth.
Similarly, Norwich also dropped a spot after besting Skidmore, 6-0, before falling to Castleton, 4-3.
UW-River Falls also jumped up multiple spot in the polls, leaping ahead three positions after defeating then-No. 11 UW-Stout, 5-3.
And then there is Adrian. After totaling 23 goals against University of Minnesota-Crookston in January and 25 against Northland in early February, the Bulldogs put up 36 goals — 16 on Friday before adding four more Saturday — against Concordia this weekend. An amazing accomplishment and worthy of an additional first place vote and a boost one rung up the national ladder this week.
Defending national champion Oswego also continued to hit their stride at the right time of year, shutting out Cortland, 3-0, in their only contest to move three big spots up the poll. Last week’s seventh ranked team, the Hobart Statesmen, didn’t fare quite so well, falling three positions after splitting with fellow ECAC West foe Utica.
The Bowdoin Polar Bears moved up a slot to No. 11.
Middlebury now has the dubious honor of the steepest weekly descent this season, dropping six spots to No. 12 after losing road contests to both previously unranked Babson (4-2) and a squeaker (4-3) at UMass-Boston.
While UW-Stout dropped two positions to No. 13 after losing to new No. 7 River Falls, Babson re-entered the poll at No. 14 after impressive wins over Middlebury and Williams. Idle Neumann slipped down one rung to No. 15
After falling twice — to Hamilton and Amherst (in OT) — New England College dropped out of the poll.
