National champ Texas Lutheran opens season No. 1 in NFCA Division III Top 25

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LOUISVILLE, Ky. — National champion Texas Lutheran starts 2020 right where it finished last season — as the unanimous No. 1 in the NFCA Top 25 Coaches Poll.

The (40-8) Bulldogs won their first NCAA Division III title last May, going undefeated in five games at the NCAA championship finals in Tyler, Texas, including a sweep of Emory in the best-of-three championship series.

Emory (39-14), meanwhile, opens second in the rankings after finishing as the national runner-up. The Eagles suffered their only two losses at the finals site on the final day to Texas Lutheran.

The six other NCAA championship finals teams all made the top 10, with third-place national finishers Eastern Connecticut State (36-13) and Trine (37-8) ranked third and fourth; fifth-place finishers Williams (39-7) and Illinois Wesleyan (39-10) at fifth and sixth; and seventh-place finishers St. Thomas (43-7) and Randolph-Macon (30-17) at ninth and 10th, respectively.

Virginia Wesleyan (42-6) and Christopher Newport (37-9) were the other two teams in the top 10 to begin the year, while Linfield (39-8-1) and Lynchburg (37-15), who lost to the two national finalists in the NCAA super regionals, are 11th and 12th, respectively.

The NFCA Division III Top 25 Poll is selected by eight NCAA Division III head coaches representing the eight NCAA regions. Final 2019 records are listed, with first-place votes in parentheses.

NFCA Division III Top 25 Poll – Feb. 5, 2020

Rank

Team

2019 Record

Points

1

Texas Lutheran (8)

40-8

200

2

Emory

39-14

192

3

Eastern Connecticut State

36-13

184

4

Trine

37-8

176

5

Williams

39-7

168

6

Illinois Wesleyan

39-10

160

7

Virginia Wesleyan

42-6

152

8

Christopher Newport

37-9

144

9

St. Thomas (Minn.)

43-7

136

10

Randolph-Macon

30-17

128

11

Linfield

39-8-1

120

12

Lynchburg

37-15

112

13

East Texas Baptist

39-6

104

14

Rowan

33-15

96

15

Birmingham-Southern

35-7

88

16

Ithaca

28-9-1

80

17

Geneseo

37-13

72

18

Carthage

30-16

64

19

The College of New Jersey

33-8

56

20

Tufts

32-10

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48

21

Central (Iowa)

27-10

40

22

Mary Hardin-Baylor

28-16

32

23

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

30-12-1

24

24

DePauw

33-14

16

25

Manhattanville

41-4

8