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The College Crosse Top 20 For February 20, 2018 & Week 3 Elimination Pool Picks.

The Great Danes are Best In Show this week!!

Canine Champions Compete At Prestigious Westminister Dog Show Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images

William “Billy” Costigan Nathaniel Hawthorne once said “Families are always rising and falling in America.” Well the same can be said of lacrosse teams in 2018, as we had all sorts of movement from last week’s Poll, including a new #1 team on our College Crosse Top 20 Poll.

Just to review our pollsters for anyone new to our blog, this year we have Jack Goods (The Buffalo News), James Simmons (Troy Nunes), and Caroline Darney (SB Nation & Streaking The Lawn)voting alongside Chris, Marisa, Ryan, Adam, Jake, & myself. You can find our official College Crosse Top 20 Poll for this week and directly below. I’ve included last week’s Top 20 Poll in the column on the right so you can see the changes side by side. The graph below the Poll contains our ballots for this week’s Poll. #Transparency Moreover, you can find comments from Adam and Jake about their top 20 ballots below the ballots graph. Lastly, you can find our Week 3 Elimination Pool picks at the very bottom of the post. Everyone survived this week, so we all get to play on for at least another week. Anyway, that’s enough chitchat, here’s our College Crosse Top 20 Poll for February 20, 2018 (Numbers within ()s indicate the number of 1st place votes). Let us know what you think in the comments section!

College Crosse Top 20 Poll

Rank Top 20 Poll - Feb. 20 Top 20 Poll - Feb. 13
Rank Top 20 Poll - Feb. 20 Top 20 Poll - Feb. 13
1 Albany (5) Duke (8)
2 Duke (4) Albany
3 Maryland Maryland (1)
4 Denver Denver
5 Ohio State Yale
6 Army Ohio State
7 Villanova Syracuse
8 Virginia Rutgers
9 Loyola - Tied for 9th Johns Hopkins - Tied for 9th
9 Notre Dame - Tied for 9th Notre Dame - Tied for 9th
11 Yale Virginia
12 Rutgers North Carolina
13 Penn State Villanova
14 Johns Hopkins Army
15 North Carolina Penn State - Tied for 15th
16 Syracuse Loyola - Tied for 15th
17 Vermont Towson
18 Colgate Princeton
19 Princeton Vermont
20 Penn Boston Univ.
ACV Georgetown, Towson, BU, Richmond Bucknell, UMBC, Delaware, Penn, Jacksonville

For the second week in a row we had a tie at #9. Another interesting thing about this week’s Poll is how Albany was able to gather enough votes to dethrone Duke for #1, despite the fact the Blue Devils had an excellent win over a top 4 opponent in Denver last weekend. It just goes to show you how impressive the Great Danes looked last Saturday versus Syracuse.

College Crosse Week 3 Ballots.

Rank Adam Epstein Ryan McDonnell Jake Nazar Rank Chris Jastrzembski Jack Goods Marisa Ingemi Rank Safe Fekadu Jim Simmons Caroline Darney Rank College Crosse
Rank Adam Epstein Ryan McDonnell Jake Nazar Rank Chris Jastrzembski Jack Goods Marisa Ingemi Rank Safe Fekadu Jim Simmons Caroline Darney Rank College Crosse
1 Duke Albany Albany 1 Duke Albany Duke 1 Albany Duke Albany 1 Albany (5)
2 Albany Duke Duke 2 Albany Duke Albany 2 Duke Albany Duke 2 Duke (4)
3 Maryland Denver Maryland 3 Maryland Maryland Maryland 3 Maryland Maryland Maryland 3 Maryland
4 Ohio State Ohio State Denver 4 Denver Ohio State Denver 4 Ohio State Denver Denver 4 Denver
5 Denver Maryland Ohio State 5 Ohio State Denver Ohio State 5 Denver Villanova Ohio State 5 Ohio State
6 Army Army Army 6 Army West Point Army Villanova 6 Villanova Ohio State Army 6 Army
7 Virginia Villanova Villanova 7 Virginia Virginia Notre Dame 7 Army Virginia Villanova 7 Villanova
8 Loyola Yale Virginia 8 Loyola Villanova Army 8 Virginia Notre Dame Notre Dame 8 Virginia
9 Villanova Virginia Rutgers 9 Villanova Notre Dame Loyola 9 Notre Dame Loyola Virginia 9 Loyola
10 Notre Dame Loyola Loyola 10 Penn State Loyola North Carolina 10 Loyola Army Yale 9 Notre Dame
11 Yale Notre Dame Penn State 11 Notre Dame Penn State Rutgers 11 Yale Yale Loyola 11 Yale
12 Rutgers Rutgers Notre Dame 12 Yale Yale Johns Hopkins 12 Rutgers North Carolina Penn State 12 Rutgers
13 Penn State Penn State Yale 13 Rutgers Rutgers Penn State 13 North Carolina Rutgers North Carolina 13 Penn State
14 Johns Hopkins Syracuse Johns Hopkins 14 Johns Hopkins Johns Hopkins Virginia 14 Penn State Syracuse Rutgers 14 Johns Hopkins
15 Syracuse Johns Hopkins Syracuse 15 Syracuse Syracuse Syracuse 15 Syracuse Johns HOpkins Johns Hopkins 15 North Carolina
16 Vermont Vermont Vermont 16 North Carolina Vermont Yale 16 Johns Hopkins Penn State Princeton 16 Syracuse
17 North Carolina North Carolina Princeton 17 Vermont North Carolina Vermont 17 Princeton Vermont Syracuse 17 Vermont
18 Princeton Boston University North Carolina 18 Penn Colgate Towson 18 Vermont Colgate Vermont 18 Colgate
19 Colgate Colgate Colgate 19 Colgate Boston University Richmond 19 Penn Princeton Penn 19 Princeton
20 Penn Princeton Penn 20 Princeton Georgetown BU 20 Colgate Penn Colgate 20 Penn

Comments

Adam

1. Duke - Beat a great Denver team despite losing the vast majority of faceoffs. Albany butchered the Orange but still think Duke is the best roster in D1

2.Albany - Tehoka is pretty good, huh?

3. Maryland - Didn’t watch the game vs. High Point but injuries may be taking a toll on the Terp defense.

4. Ohio State - Hofstra made a run but that game was never in doubt. Myers’ squad doesn’t look like they’ve missed a step since last year.

5. Denver - Was the better team for three quarters and then collapsed in the 4th against Duke. Can’t lose games in which Baptiste dominates.

6. Army - Just rock solid. The D is legit.

7. Virginia - The Hoos kind of jump into the 7 slot by default by not slipping up against Drexel. Jury is still out on them..

8. Loyola - Dominated Hop on their home turf in the snow. Got contributions from people not named Spencer. Were vicious on D and pushed transition.

9. Villanova - The sneaky best two-week resume in lacrosse with narrow wins over Penn State and Yale.

10. Notre Dame - Didn’t play but a reminder that they did NOT look good against Detroit.

11. Yale - Hynes didn’t play but I do think it’s possible they were a bit overrated coming into the season.

12. Rutgers - Battled Army hard but the Scarlet Knights have just looked blah through three games this season. They need to turn on the jets.

13. Penn State - Two solid outings after dropping the opener in OT to Villanova. No trouble scoring without Ament.

14. Johns Hopkins - Looked dreadful against their neighbors on Charles Street this week. Total opposite of the opener against Towson. Small bright spot: Hunter Moreland looks like Hunter Moreland again.

15. Syracuse - Had the doors blown off at home against Albany, who were better in every possible way. 21 goals against Binghamton don’t seem so impressive now.

16. Vermont - Don’t look now but the Catamounts are the best team in history?

17. North Carolina - A win’s a win but I don’t think anyone would argue that they’ve looked particularly good through three games. Defense needs serious work.

18. Princeton - Snuck by Monmouth. Sowers had a quite game (by his standards). Blaisdell epic in cage.

19. Colgate - It’s pretty clear that they can score. Looking like the best team since Baum graduated.

20. Penn - Beat a decent Michigan team, going to be dangerous if they keep getting contributions from all these young guys.

Jake

  1. Albany - The closest thing to a complete team in the country. Good goalie, great FOGO, tremendous offense.

2. Duke - Offense is tremendous. Defense was up and down vs Denver, but got key stops when needed.

3. Maryland - The offense may be even better than it was last year. Defense badly needs Bryce Young back.

4. Denver - Looked like the best team for 45 minutes vs Duke. Defense and goalie still question marks.

5. Ohio State - Have shown flashes of being #1. Defense is still stingy and faceoffs remain a strength.

6. Army - Just a brutal team to play. Defense is terrific and they suck the air out of the game on offense.

7. Villanova - No one has two better wins so far. Offense is great and defense was strong against Yale.

8. Virginia - Solid effort against Drexel. Should be a fun one next week against Princeton.

9. Rutgers - Played well in a tough loss to Army. Think they’ll be better come April, as they’re not built for cold weather.

10. Loyola - This defense could be a Top 10 unit come years end. Offense got some needed contributors beyond Spencer against Hop.

11. Penn State - I’m not sure there’s a team in the country who can stop them from scoring. Two solid bounce back wins.

12. Notre Dame - Dropped 2 spots only because they were idle.

13. Yale - In three weeks, I bet you they beat Nova. Starting in Week 3 hurts the Ivy.

14. Johns Hopkins - 6 on 6 offense is not as good as I’d anticipated. I think this was just one of those weeks though.

15. Syracuse - They clearly still need a lot of work. Completely dominated by Albany. Goalie plays looks to be solid though.

16. Vermont - Another dominant win for the Catamounts. One win away from a 5-0 start....all on the road.

17. Princeton - Important to start the year with a W. If they beat UVA next week they could shoot up these rankings.

18. North Carolina - That defense is going to stop them from going anywhere this year, but they keep squeaking by.

19. Colgate - Raiders continue to roll and start Patriot League play next week at 3-0.

20. Penn - Good win over Michigan to start the year. Interesting game against Maryland on Wednesday.

Elimination Pool

Week 3 Elimination Pool Picks.

Players Adam Epstein Ryan McDonnell Jake Nazar Chris Jastrzembski Safe Fekadu Marisa Ingemi Jack Goods Jim Simmons Caroline Darney
Players Adam Epstein Ryan McDonnell Jake Nazar Chris Jastrzembski Safe Fekadu Marisa Ingemi Jack Goods Jim Simmons Caroline Darney
Week 1 Providence Delaware Delaware Providence Delaware Providence Providence Delaware Providence
Week 2 Army Vermont Army Michigan Army Army Towson Army Army
Week 3 Loyola BU (vs Dartmouth) Albany Richmond (vs. MSM) Loyola Boston Univ. Richmond (vs. MSM) Albany Loyola