Even though women’s tennis hasn’t slipped up, they’ve dropped two spots in the rankings for this week. Why? Simple, they don’t begin their quest for an NCAA championship until this Friday. This down time helped two programs jump over tennis, also ushering in a team new to the No. 1 spot. This week’s rankings also part with four programs (men’s tennis, fencing, men’s and women’s golf) whose seasons are done. A much shorter list now, but still packed with goodness.
1. Softball - The week didn’t start strong at all for the Wildcats, who lost games to top team in the country Alabama 6-5, and dropped a game to Depaul 5-3 later the same day. Things got better with a 6-3 triumph over Michigan State, and those early mess-ups were forgotten when the ‘Cats clinched a share of the Big Ten title with a 6-1 win over the Spartans.
2. Lacrosse - For most college lacrosse teams, winning a conference tournament championship would be more than enough to land them at the top spot of a student publication’s power rankings. Not for Northwestern. The Wildcats may have beaten Penn State 15-7 and downed Vanderbilt 14-3 in the title game to win their sixth-straight American Lacrosse Conference championship. But this is three-time national champ NU we are talking about. They are expected to dominate tournaments like this. We are harsh judges here.
3. Women’s Tennis - First match in the NCAA tourney is this Friday at 2 p.m., when the ‘Cats square off against the University of Illinois-Chicago here in Evanston.
4. Baseball - Dropped a game to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee 6-5 before facing the University of Illinois in a three-game series. The Illini took the opener in big style with a 14-4 victory, but the Wildcats struck back with a 4-3 win in the next game. Illinois won the last game, though, 11-5.