Butler soccer moves up to fifth in NJCAA D-I rankings
With wins over ranked Texas schools Hill and Navarro last week, Butler soccer moved up three spots from its #8 preseason ranking to #5 in the NJCAA Division I Women's Soccer Top 20 poll, which was released Tuesday.
Butler received 106 votes and was one of two new teams moving into the top five of the rankings. Preseason favorite Monroe College, N.Y. (3-0-0) maintained its top spot, as did #2 Tyler, Texas (0-0-0). Eastern Florida State (1-0-0) moved up one spot to third, while Laramie County, Wyo. (3-0-1) jumped six spots from 10th to fourth.
After suffering a 1-0 defeat to Seminole State last Saturday in Noble, Okla., the Grizzlies came back on Sunday with a 2-1 victory over #19 Hill, Texas. Butler followed that win up with a 1-0 win against #5 Navarro, Texas this past Saturday.
On Monday, Butler (4-1-0 overall) defeated #7 Lewis & Clark, Ill., 1-0 in overtime, courtesy of a Karter Corini header goal in the 99th minute. However, the poll took into account all games up until Sunday.
Seminole, which handed Butler its only loss of the season so far, moved into the rankings at 13th after not being ranked in the preseason poll. Hill moved up two spots to 17th, while Navarro dropped out of the Top 10 and fell six spots to 11th.
Butler has now been ranked in 77 straight polls and has its highest ranking in the NJCAA poll since the final 2016 regular season poll (Nov. 8), when the Grizzlies were ranked second.
The Grizzlies were joined by one other Jayhawk Conference school in the poll, as Johnson County (2-0-0) cracked the rankings at #18. The Cavaliers make their first appearance in the rankings since the 2018 preseason poll.
Winners of four straight and seven of the last eight Jayhawk Conference titles, Butler opens conference play Wednesday with a road contest at Kansas City Kansas at 6:00 p.m., then returns home Saturday for a 2:00 p.m. match against Cowley.
| 2019 NJCAA DIVISION I WOMEN'S SOCCER TOP 20 POLL | ||||
| Sept. 3, 2019 | ||||
| Rank | Team | Record | Points | Prev Rank |
| 1. | Monroe College, N.Y. (7) | 3-0-0 | 140 | 1 |
| 2. | Tyler, Texas | 0-0-0 | 133 | 2 |
| 3. | Eastern Florida State | 1-0-0 | 126 | 4 |
| 4. | Laramie County, Wyo. | 3-0-1 | 117 | 10 |
| 5. | Butler | 3-1-0 | 106 | 8 |
| 6. | Salt Lake, Utah | 2-0-0 | 104 | 13 |
| 7. | Lewis & Clark, Ill. | 1-1-0 | 96 | 7 |
| 8. | Daytona State, Fla. | 0-0-0 | 93 | 9 |
| 9. | Snow, Utah | 1-0-1 | 85 | 17 |
| 10. | Monroe CC, N.Y. | 2-1-0 | 76 | 6 |
| 11. | Navarro, Texas | 1-2-0 | 72 | 5 |
| 12. | Rose State | 3-1-0 | 64 | NR |
| 13. | Seminole State, Okla. | 2-0-1 | 56 | NR |
| 14. | Iowa Western | 1-3-0 | 49 | 3 |
| 15. | Holmes, Miss. | 3-0-0 | 45 | NR |
| 16. | Cape Fear, N.C. | 3-0-0 | 27 | 16 |
| 17. | Hill, Texas | 1-1-0 | 25 | 19 |
| 18. | Johnson County | 2-0-0 | 17 | NR |
| 19. | Western Nebraska | 4-0-0 | 15 | NR |
| 20. | Phoenix, Ariz. | 1-0-1 | 8 | 18 |
Dropped from rankings: Paradise Valley, Ariz. (11); Arizona Western (12); Jones, Miss. (14); Moraine Valley, Ill. (15); Spartanburg Methodist, S.C. (20).
Other schools receiving votes: Indian Hills, Iowa (4-0-0), 5.0; Jones, Miss. (2-2-0), 4.0; Southern Nevada (4-0-0).