NFCA, Division III, D3, NCAA, poll, top 25, coaches, softball, fastpitch, University, College

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Defending national champion Texas Lutheran captured its seventh straight Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference tournament championship and continued as the top team in the NFCA Division III Top 25 Coaches Poll.

The (28-4) Bulldogs defeated Centenary (La.), 2-1, on Monday at Schreiner’s Mountaineer Field on Rebecca Snow’s walk-off single with the bases loaded and two out in the bottom of the seventh. Snow had tied the game an inning earlier on a homer to right center.

Meanwhile, Virginia Wesleyan (33-5-1) kept rolling along in the No. 2 spot, winning twice against Shenandoah in Saturday’s Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) tournament to advance to today’s first two games of a best-of-three semifinal round against Roanoke. In the first game against Shenandoah, two-time Schutt Sports/NFCA Player of the Year Hanna Hull broke the Division III record for career wins with her 125th, passing Coast Guard’s Hayley Feindel, who collected 124 victories from 2009-12.

DePauw (31-2) moved up two more spots this week, to third, on the strength of its 15-game win streak, and Moravian (26-0) went from ninth to fourth after winning its 30th straight game going back to the last four games of 2020.

Elsewhere, Randolph-Macon (14-7-1) was idle but dropped a spot to No. 17, after being forced to miss last week’s start of the ODAC tournament due to COVID-19 protocols. George Fox (27-9), fresh off a four-game split with then-No. 8 Linfield, is this week’s poll newcomer at No. 25.

The NFCA Division III Top 25 Poll is selected by eight NCAA Division III head coaches representing the eight NCAA regions. Current records are listed, with first-place votes in parentheses. In 2021, schools that are not competing will not be eligible for the poll.  

 

NFCA Division III Top 25 Poll – May 5, 2021

Rank

Team

2021 Record

Points

Previous

1

Texas Lutheran (8)

28-4

200

1

2

Virginia Wesleyan

33-5-1

192

2

3

DePauw

31-2

184

5

4

Moravian

26-0

176

9

5

Birmingham-Southern

29-5

168

T3

6

Eastern Connecticut State

24-2

160

T3

7

Belhaven

30-8

152

6

8

East Texas Baptist

26-5

144

7

9

Emory & Henry

25-5

136

10

10

Berry

25-8

123

11

11

Linfield

33-7

120

8

T12

Christopher Newport

26-10

106

14

 

Salisbury

21-7

106

13

14

St. John Fisher

25-3

103

12

15

Wartburg

25-6

90

15

16

The College of New Jersey

17-3

70

18

17

Randolph-Macon

14-7-1

62

16

18

Mount Union

30-6

61

19

19

St. Olaf

21-3

48

22

20

Concordia (Wis.)

28-6

43

20

21

Rowan

25-5

38

21

22

Rochester

26-7

34

25

23

St. Scholastica

32-6

30

17

24

Williams

12-0

20

23

25

George Fox

27-9

10

NR

Others receiving votes:  Alvernia 6, Misericordia 4, Mount St. Joseph 4, Milwaukee School of Engineering 3, Hope 3, Bethel (Minn.) 2, Aurora 1, Ithaca 1.

Dropped out: Coe, Saint Benedict and Trine.

Programs that do not participate during the 2021 season will not be eligible for the poll.

2021 NFCA Division III Top 25 Committee2021 NFCA Division III Top 25 Committee

Keep Your Coaching Pitch Perfect.

bownet, nfca partner, nfca maxpreps, max preps, nfca partner, nfca cell wade, nfca partner, nfca

For Those Who Know Even
Days Off Are Days On.

Learn About The Perks And Join NFCA Today.

Benefits Join Today