LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Tufts University, which won its second straight national championship earlier this week, finishes the year the unanimous choice atop the National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) Division III Top 25 softball rankings.
The (47-4) Jumbos went 5-1 in the NCAA Championship at Texas-Tyler’s Suddenlink Field for an overall 13-1 postseason run to garner all eight first-place votes. Tufts has been the top team in nine of 13 polls this season, including four straight to start the year and the final three rankings.
Salisbury (44-5), which spent two weeks at No. 1 earlier this season, vaulted back to the clear second choice in the poll after dealing Tufts its first postseason loss since 2012 in the first game of the best-of-3 NCAA Championship Series. The Sea Gulls’ lone losses in Tyler came in the final two games to Tufts, including a 6-0 loss in 14 innings in the second game of the Championship Series that was scoreless for the first 13.
St. Thomas (44-9), East Texas Baptist (45-10) and Wisconsin-Whitewater (39-13), which all made the NCAA Championship in Tyler, comprise spots three through five, while Christopher Newport (38-8), which had the poor fortune to be in the same NCAA Super Regional as Salisbury, is No. 6.
Montclair State (42-8), which played in Tyler, finishes seventh, while Texas-Tyler (41-6), whose path to its own home field was blocked by East Texas Baptist in the NCAA Regional round, is No. 8.
NCAA Championship participant Trine (43-6) is ninth, while Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (32-15), which lost to East Texas Baptist in the Super Regionals, rounds out the top 10 teams.
The other NCAA Championship team, Rochester (32-14), goes all the way from the receiving votes category to 13th, while Linfield (34-9) went the opposite direction, dropping 14 places from second to 16th after losing two to Claremont-Mudd-Scripps in the NCAA Regionals.
North Central (Ill.) rejoined the poll, while Anderson, Fontbonne, the University of Chicago, Wellesley (Mass.) and Williams dropped out.
The NFCA Division III Top 25 Poll is selected by eight NCAA Division III head coaches representing the eight NCAA regions. Final 2014 records are listed, with first-place votes in parentheses.
For the complete poll, click here
