Orange City Iowa — Northwestern College dropped one spot in this week’s edition of the NAIA Division II Women’s Basketball coaches’ poll released by the national office on Tuesday.
Ranked ninth in the Feb.6 coaches’ poll, Northwestern fell to 10th in the Feb. 20 edition after going 1-1 last week. The Red Raiders lost to then-No.10 Dakota Wesleyan last week in Mitchell, S.D. but came back to defeat Doane last weekend in the final game of the regular season. They finished tied with DWU for second in the GPAC with a 16-4 record and earned the No.2 seed in the upcoming GPAC Tournament with a 21-7 overall record.
Northwestern is one of five teams from the GPAC ranked in the top 25, joining Concordia (2), Dakota Wesleyan (8), Hastings (12) and Morningside (13).
The top six teams are unchanged from the last poll with unbeaten Southeastern (Fla.) holding down the top spot for the second consecutive week. The Fire received 10 of the 11 possible first place votes. Concordia is second, followed by College of the Ozarks (Mo.), Saint Xavier (Ill.) and Marian (Ind.).
1 Southeastern (Fla.) [10] 27-0 281
2 Concordia (Neb.) [1] 29-1 272
3 College of the Ozarks (Mo.) 28-1 263
4 Saint Xavier (Ill.) 26-2 252
5 Marian (Ind.) 28-2 247
6 Eastern Oregon 27-2 236
7 Jamestown (N.D.) 27-3 225
8 Dakota Wesleyan (S.D.) 25-5 214
9 Indiana Tech 27-3 209
10 Northwestern (Iowa) 21-7 198
11 Southern Oregon 25-3 195
12 Hastings (Neb.) 24-5 187
13 Morningside (Iowa) 20-10 158
14 Olivet Nazarene (Ill.) 21-8 153
15 Indiana Wesleyan 23-7 149
16 Valley City State (N.D.) 22-4 139
17 Northwest Christian (Ore.) 22-5 137
18 Taylor (Ind.) 21-9 132
19 St. Francis (Ill.) 20-8 129
20 Lawrence Tech (Mich.) 24-5 119
21 Friends (Kan.) 22-7 106
22 Rio Grande (Ohio) 27-3 98
23 Bryan (Tenn.) 22-8 74
24 Antelope Valley (Calif.) 20-6 65
25 Reinhardt (Ga.) 22-8 60
Dropped from the Top 25: Embry-Riddle (Ariz.), Saint Francis (Ind.)
Others receiving votes: Indiana East 42; Cardinal Stritch (Wis.) 36; Embry-Riddle (Ariz.) 32; Oklahoma Wesleyan 14; Bellevue (Neb.) 14; Concordia (Mich.) 13; St. Thomas (Fla.) 13; Oregon Tech 9; Grace (Ind.) 3; Bethany (Kan.) 3; Point (Ga.) 3
