Another tumultuous week in the USA Lacrosse Division III Men’s Top 20 has teams rising and tumbling in equal measure.
While nearly every squad in the country fought penultimate conference battles this past weekend, not every result went according to plan.
Case in point: Bowdoin’s 16-12 loss to Wesleyan on Saturday. The final score was a little closer than the actual gameplay would showcase for most of the contest. The Cardinals had the Polar Bears trapped on an ice float on which scoring seemed impossible. A free-flowing, high-volume shooting offense was too much for Bowdoin to overcome, and down went the last undefeated team in conference play in the NESCAC.
Other big results included RPI losing to Amherst and St. Lawrence dropping another game, this time to a top-flight opponent in RIT.
Maybe the biggest sleeper in the entire Top 20 is Lynchburg, which has really played some of its best lacrosse toward the end of the regular season. Lynchburg nailed down two big wins against Roanoke and Hampden-Sydney.
Next week, we are looking down the barrel of some regular-season finales that will determine postseason tournament seeding. We’re almost into May, folks — this lacrosse season is hurtling toward its inevitable conclusion.
USA LACROSSE DIVISION III
MEN’S TOP 20
1. Salisbury, 16-0 (Prev: 1)
2. RIT, 15-1 (Prev: 3)
3. Tufts, 12-2 (Prev: 4)
4. Swarthmore, 13-1 (Prev: 5)
5. RPI, 14-1 (Prev: 2)
6. Christopher Newport, 12-4 (Prev: 6)
7. Dickinson, 13-2 (Prev: 8)
8. St. Lawrence, 13-2 (Prev: 7)
9. Bowdoin, 10-3 (Prev: 10)
10. Wesleyan, 11-3 (Prev: 16)
11. Washington and Lee, 12-3 (Prev: 11)
12. Amherst, 9-5 (Prev: 12)
13. Lynchburg, 10-5 (Prev: 14)
14. Union, 10-3 (Prev: 13)
15. Babson, 12-3 (Prev: 9)
16. Gettysburg, 7-6 (Prev: 15)
17. Endicott, 13-1 (Prev: 17)
18. Stevens, 13-2 (Prev: 18)
19. Middlebury, 8-6 (Prev: 20)
20. Cabrini, 13-3 (Prev: NR)
Also considered (alphabetical order): Grove City, Lake Forest, Muhlenberg, Trinity, Williams