Stanford, Pomona-Pitzer & Hartwick Remain No. 1 in March 11 Women's National Varsity Polls

BRIDGEPORT, Pa. -- Stanford University, Pomona-Pitzer Colleges and Hartwick College maintained their positions at No. 1 as the March 11 Women's National Varsity Top 20, Division III Top 10 and Collegiate Water Polo Association Top 10 polls were released by the Collegiate Water Polo Association league office.

The ranking marks the third consecutive week Stanford has held the No. 1 spot as the Cardinal took over the top-ranking from the University of Southern California in the February 25 poll. 

Overall, the first four positions in the poll are unchanged as USC, University of California-Los Angeles and University of Hawaii retain their No. 2 through 4 rankings, respectively.

San Diego State University moved ahead of Arizona State University to take possession of the No. 5 ranking this week, while ASU, University of California, San Jose State University, University of California-Irvine and Loyola Marymount University round out the Top 10 teams in the nation.

California State University-Northridge climbs one place to No. 11 this week with the University of California-Davis dropping to No. 12, while Hartwick College moved into a tie for No. 13 with University of California-Santa Barbara and University of Michigan maintained its hold on the No. 15 ranking.

The biggest mover of the week is University of California-San Diego which jumps three places to No. 16 this week on the heels of wins over Bucknell University (10-7 W) and former No. 16 Long Beach State University (11-10 W).

Long Beach State, California State University-Bakersfield and Indiana University all slipped one place to No. 17-19, respectively, with Santa Clara University moving into the Top 20 at No. 20 after not receiving a vote last week.

Among the 20 teams ranked last week, 19 retained positions in the Top 20 with the University of Maryland, ranked No. 20 in the March 4 poll, dropping out of the poll into the receiving votes category.

Pomona-Pitzer Colleges saw its run as the No. 1 Division III team in the nation continue this week as the Sagehens received 100 points to be a unanimous No. 1 selection in the March 11 Division III poll.

The ranking marks the 10th week in a row Pomona-Pitzer has been ranked No. 1 dating back to April 30, 2008 when the Sagehens took over the top-ranking from California Lutheran University.

This week's poll saw relatively few changes in the rankings as Occidental College, which was tied for No. 2 last week, attained sole possession of the position this week with 93 points, five better than third place Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges.

California Lutheran held firm at No. 4, while University of California-Santa Cruz climbed past California State University-East Bay to take control of the No. 5 slot.

The remaining four spots in the poll remained the same from the March 4 balloting as University of Redlands, Whittier College, Chapman College and Grove City College remained at No. 7 through 10. 

Hartwick College maintained its control over the Collegiate Water Polo Association Top 10 poll this week ranking first with a unanimous 100 points as the top eight spots in the balloting remain unchanged from the March 4 poll.

University of Michigan, Indiana University, University of Maryland, Princeton University, Brown University, Harvard University and Bucknell University stayed at No. 2-8 this week, respectively, with the only change occurring at No. 9 and 10.

Gannon University, which was ranked No. 10 last week, edged out former No. 9 George Washington University for the ninth position in this week's poll with 58 points, one better than the Colonials' 57 point tally.