No poll is perfect and to believe that any body of voters could accurately rank every team in the country is foolish. But this week’s edition of the USILA Top 20 has inspired doubt in me because of the way its voters have treated the No. 5 Stevenson Mustangs in the wake of their loss to top-ranked RIT.
It’s just wrong.
The Mustangs have done nothing but lose to the best team in the country, a team that has scored 36 goals in its last two games and has a 2-0 record in games that feature the No. 1 and No. 2 ranked teams in the country. The Tigers blasted Cortland this past week and only knocked the Mustangs off because of an unbelievable comeback.
All Stevenson has done outside of that game is take care of business outside of that loss in Syracuse. They may not have been the most convincing of wins—9-8 in overtime against York, 12-8 vs. Albright—but hasn’t Stevenson earned some benefit of the doubt?
Last year, Paul Cantabene and Co. ran roughshod all over the country and won the national championship. There is still time for them to overtake Cabrini, Tufts and Salisbury before the conference season starts and with a matchup with the Jumbos on tap Tuesday night, the Mustangs can likely overtake all three with a win.
Things will work themselves out come tournament time, but it’s unfortunate that we have to live in a world where losing to the best team in the country drops you behind some yet-untested teams.
Ground Balls
- Have you checked out this week’s USILA Poll and Players of the Week? Go do it now.
- The North looked so strong coming into the season, but the early struggles of Nazareth, Stevens, and Western New England have put a damper on the depth up here. Stevens in particular is having a rough go of it, sitting at 1-5 and riding a five-game losing streak. Losses to, in order, Endicott, Springfield, No. 2 Cortland, No. 4 Tufts and No. 8 Denison are all good losses, but unless they can pull out wins over Montclair State and Eastern Connecticut they could be staring at a 1-7 non-conference record. Nazareth has Stevenson and Lynchburg ahead of it before E8 play can start.
- The gap between the non-AQ leagues in Pool B and the rest of the country was on display this weekend when at-large favorite Eastern got curb-stomped by Gettysburg, 21-4. The Centennial is good, and Gettysburg is No. 19 in the country, but that is one heckuva score line.
- How about those Dutchmen from Union? Wins over No. 10 Wesleyan and No. 9 Springfield saw them jump all the way up to No. 13 in this week’s USILA Poll. Stefan Basile earned our Player of the Week award for his outstanding week in net—two games, 23 saves, nine goals—as they improved to 5-1 on the season. I’m interested to see where this momentum takes them in the coming weeks.
