USILA Division III Poll – Week 9
NEILA Regional Rankings #11

PERRY, N.Y. – It took them seven weeks, but the Endicott men's lacrosse team fought their way back to the #11 position on the USILA Division National Poll, up two spots from last week's ranking, as the Gulls will take a 13-3 overall record into the CCC Semifinals on Wednesday, April 30th against Salve Regina.

Endicott was tied with Mary Washington for 13th in the country after recording two convincing wins over Western New England and Bowdoin, but the Gulls benefited from a couple of key losses to jump ahead of Mary Washington, Montclair State, and Ithaca. With 166 votes in the national poll, Endicott trail #10 Lynchburg (13-4) by 34 points.

The Blue and Green are the top seed in the CCC Tournament after sweeping through conference play with a perfect 8-0 mark and earned a bye through the quarterfinal round. Salve Regina (13-4, 4-4) defeated Wentworth (7-9, 4-4) 10-8 in the CCC Quarterfinals to play into the top-seeded Gulls. Endicott defeated Salve Regina 14-8 back on April 12th in Middletown, R.I. by taking an 8-0 lead by the 11:19 mark of the second quarter as junior Nick Pinciaro (Beverly, Mass.) and freshman Colin Bannon (Westport, Conn.) both tallied four points and junior defenseman Ian Knechtle (New Canaan, Conn.) caused three turnovers. All three players were recently recognized on the All-CCC Team including Bannon who was named CCC Rookie of the Year.

The top-10 in the USILA Division III national poll remained unchanged with nobody suffering a loss in any games last week. No. 1 RIT (16-0) and #4 Denison (17-0) are the only two undefeated teams left in the country. Three of the top-10 teams have one loss against them including #2 Salisbury (17-1).

Regionally, Endicott remains ranked behind #7 Tufts (14-2) who won both of their games last week against NESCAC opponents Bowdoin and Colby.