WILLIMANTIC, Conn. – Following a four-game home-and-home sweep of the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, the Eastern Connecticut State University softball team jumped five spots and into the national Top 10 at No. 7 in the fifth NFCA Division III regular-season Top 25 Coaches' Poll, released today.
Having been ranked 15th in the first three regular-season polls following a No. 16 pre-season ranking, Eastern (14-0) moved into 12th place on March 31 week after sweeping three home doubleheaders, and broke into the Top 10 this week after back-to-back sweeps of UMD this past Friday and Saturday. The Warriors received 152 points this week after being awarded 111 a week ago by the voting head coaches representing the eight NCAA Division III regions.
Despite winning its only game of the week, DePauw University, IN (17-2) dropped from seventh into a tie for tenth with Belhaven University, MS (20-6), which held to tenth place alone last week.
Through games of Tuesday, Eastern was the highest-ranked unbeaten team and was one of four teams in the Top 25 without a loss, joining ninth-ranked Kean University, NJ (12-0), 15th-ranked Moravian College, PA (8-0), and Westminster College, PA (18-0), which squeaked into the Top 25, at No. 25.
In their four-game sweep of UMass Dartmouth last week, the Warriors batted .441 with a .748 slugging percentage. Senior rightfielder Alexis Tyrrell (Torrington) and graduate centerfielder Cassie Woods (Mystic) batted .667 and .647, respectively, in those game, with junior utility Carley Stoker (Sandy Creek, NY) and senior catcher Megan Hodgdon (Cheshire) both at .545. Tyrrell recorded her 100th career hit during the week.
The LEC Player-of-the-Week last week, Woods scored nine runs and had two doubles and a home run. The LEC Pitcher-of-the-Week, junior righty Brooke Matyasovsky (Orange) appeared in all four games on the mound, winning all three decisions with allowing an earned run in 14.0 innings. Twenty of the 25 hits allowed by Matyasovsky and Stoker during the week were singles.
Linfield University, OR (22-2) saw its 18-game win streak end, but maintained its standing as the top team in the country for a third week. The Wildcats dropped the second game of a four-game weekend series with University of Puget Sound, WA, but won the final two games to quickly get back on track.
Eastern remains the only institution from New England listed among the Top 25 or having received votes.
Now 4-0 in the Little East Conference, Eastern visits Rhode Island College in a 2 p.m. LEC doubleheader Friday. The Warriors swept the Anchorwomen in a non-conference pair, 15-0 and 12-4 March 23 at Clyde Washburne Field.
2021 NFCA Top 25 Coaches' Poll
Poll #6
(Through April 4)
| Rank |
Team |
2021 Record |
Points |
Previous |
| 1 |
Linfield (8) |
22-2 |
200 |
1 |
| 2 |
Virginia Wesleyan |
21-3-1 |
192 |
2 |
| 3 |
Texas Lutheran |
20-4 |
184 |
3 |
| 4 |
East Texas Baptist |
16-3 |
176 |
5 |
| 5 |
Salisbury |
14-4 |
168 |
6 |
| 6 |
Christopher Newport |
18-8 |
160 |
4 |
| 7 |
Eastern Connecticut State |
14-0 |
152 |
12 |
| 8 |
Kean |
12-0 |
144 |
8 |
| 9 |
Birmingham-Southern |
23-3 |
136 |
9 |
| T10 |
Belhaven |
20-6 |
128 |
10 |
|
DePauw |
17-2 |
128 |
7 |
| 12 |
St. John Fisher |
7-1 |
110 |
11 |
| 13 |
Berry |
16-5 |
100 |
14 |
| 14 |
Wartburg |
17-4 |
97 |
16 |
| 15 |
Moravian |
8-0 |
89 |
15 |
| 16 |
Milwaukee School of Engineering |
16-1 |
82 |
17 |
| 17 |
Emory & Henry |
13-3 |
62 |
19 |
| 18 |
Transylvania |
13-7 |
57 |
13 |
| 19 |
Saint Benedict |
10-2 |
50 |
24 |
| 20 |
Randolph-Macon |
8-3-1 |
39 |
T22 |
| T21 |
Cortland |
6-2 |
36 |
T22 |
|
Mount Union |
17-3 |
36 |
20 |
| 23 |
Dubuque |
12-4 |
33 |
18 |
| 24 |
Alvernia |
12-2 |
30 |
21 |
| 25 |
Westminster (Pa.) |
18-0 |
7 |
NR |
Others receiving votes: Misericordia 4, St. Scholastica 4, McMurry 1, Millikin 1, Stevenson 1, Trine 1.
Dropped out: Aurora, Geneseo and Luther.
