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!

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.

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