The number one team in the College Crosse Top 20 Poll for the second week in a row is the University of Albany! The Great Danes were #1 last week, but the margin was much tighter, as they barely edged out Duke for the top spot. That’s not a problem for Albany this week, as UA received every single first-place vote in our Poll. The way Albany’s been playing lately, that #1 might be next to their name for a long time.

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. Additionally, we asked new writers Dan & Skyler to join us in voting for the remainder of the regular season, which gives us a total of 11 voters in our Poll.

You can find our official College Crosse Top 20 Poll for this week and directly below (Numbers within ()s indicate the number of 1st place votes). I’ve included the previous two Top 20 Polls in the columns on the right so you can see the changes side by side. The graph below the College Crosse Top 20 Poll contains our ballots for this week’s Poll. #Transparency Moreover, you can find comments from Jake and Dan about their top 20 votes below the ballots spreadsheet (Skyler chirped in once to comment about one of Dan’s comment as well) . Lastly, you can find our Week 4 Elimination Pool picks at the very bottom of the post. Everyone survived again, so we all get to play on for at least another week. Anyway, here’s our College Crosse Top 20 Poll for February 27, 2018. Let us know what you think in the comments section!

No ties this week, but nevertheless, we did have a lot of jumping around from last week’s Poll to this one. Special shout out to Georgetown which went from outside of the top 20 to number 16 this week. The Hoyas are off to their best start since 2003 and look for real this season. Suddenly the Big East went from a top-heavy conference with only Denver and Marquette as contenders, to a conference with at least 5 teams receiving Top 20 consideration this week.

Comments

Jake

1. Albany: Hung 16 on Drexel in the first half. 16! To watch them play offense is to watch the highest level of lacrosse possible.
2. Maryland: The offense is a joy to watch, and the defense with Bryce Young back is as stingy as always. Penn W could look good at the end of the year.
3. Duke: The defense is not as good as anticipated, and is losing too many 1-on-1 matchups. On the bright side, Nakeie Montgomery scored 2 goals, highlighting their depth.
4. Denver: Trevor Baptiste did Trevor Baptiste things and Denver won.
5. Villanova: After doing it with offense the first two weeks, they did it with defense this week, holding Hofstra to 2 goals. ‘Cats are legit.
6. Ohio State: The Buckeyes have stretches where they look like the #1 team in the country. They also have stretches where they don’t look like a Top 10 team. But they’re winning and not vs pushovers.
7. Virginia: The offense was as good as always vs Princeton, but Alex Rode’s performance in goal was the real bright spot for the ‘Hoos.
8. Loyola: Did exactly what they needed to do in blowing out Lafayette
9. Army: For 30 minutes they looked like an easy Top 8 seed come May. After that they got sloppy and kind of crumbled. But I still like this team a lot.
10. Rutgers: Solid bounceback win vs Fairfield. Still looking for that huge game from the offense.
11. Notre Dame: Defense looked tremendous for a half and then laid an egg in the second. Offensive midfield is solid, but offense is still way too laborious.
12. Yale: Things looked shaky for awhile vs Michigan, but the offense delivered a much needed big game.
13. North Carolina: Still not totally sold on the Heels, but that offense can light up the cage.
14. Syracuse: A vintage comeback effort from the Orange gave them a much needed W. Desko needs to let the offense run.
15. Vermont: Catamounts had 5 road games to start the year....and won them all. Now 2 home games before a trip to Albany.
16. Penn: Maryland was too tall a task, but a big second half from the offense and an amazing game by Junkin got them a big W over Duke.
17. Georgetown: The Hoyas can score as well as anyone and may finally be for real.
18. Delaware: Blue Hens put an absolute whooping on Monmouth and look the early CAA favorite.
19. Bucknell: Great start to CAA play with a win over Colgate. Will Sands is the most underrated player in America.
20. Marquette: Commanding W over Detroit. Interesting trip to OSU next week

Dan

1. Albany: What if I told you a college lacrosse team from Albany scored 30 goals in a game?

• Skyler: They’ll never allow enough to warrant keeping the starters in there long enough to get 30.
• Dan: I can dream.

4. Ohio State: Ohio State’s wins does nothing for me right now. They have a common opponent with Villanova in Hofstra, and Nova was way more dominant.

7. Villanova: I’m trying to decide which of the six ahead of Villanova I could swap them with, and I just can’t get there yet. This is as high as I go.

8. Loyola: Got serious contribution from young attackman. Should build confidence and help that offense grow outside of Spencer.

13. North Carolina: UNC is actually bad. This is a hill I will die on.

15. Penn: The Penn team that played today would beat the Yale team that played today.

17. Johns Hopkins: Next two are Princeton and Cuse, the Jays might be off this list soon. But not yet. I still think they’re better than the three teams below them.

20. Robert Morris: Also considered Marquette, Penn State, Delaware.

Elimination Pool