Carson-Newman leapfrogged Pfeiffer, Young Harris and Lenoir-Rhyne to move up to fourth in this week's region rankings.
The region rankings, along with automatic bids from the conference tournaments from the South Atlantic Conference, the Peach Belt Conference and Conference Carolinas go on to determine the field of eight for the Southeast Region tournament.
The Peach Belt has already crowned its conference champion. Top-ranked North Georgia shut out eighth-ranked Flagler 4-0 to win the title. The South Atlantic Conference and Conference Carolinas will decide their tournament champions this weekend.
The Eagles were also ranked fourth in the 2015 region rankings when they entered the NCAA tournament as a six seed after dropping two out of three games in the SAC tournament.
The top two for the poll remains unchanged with North Georgia and Armstrong State occupying the top two spots.
Limestone, who swept Carson-Newman in early March, moved up to third with a 39-9 record.
The Eagles, the regular season South Atlantic Conference Champions, moved up three spots thanks to a quality strength of schedule in victories against the region top 10.
Carson-Newman is 7-7 against ranked in-region opponents. The Eagles swept No. 6 Young Harris and split with No. 5 Lenoir-Rhyne on the final weekend of the regular season.
The Bears are 8-5 against regionally-ranked foes; however, Carson-Newman has a much stronger overall strength of schedule than both the Bears and 40-4 Pfeiffer, who is ranked seventh. L-R has the sixth-worst strength of schedule in the region, while Pfeiffer is dead last. Carson-Newman's strength of schedule is in the middle of the pack.
The Peach Belt Conference Tournament runner-up Flagler is in eighth with a 37-19 record. Georgia College sits in ninth at 30-17. Those two teams, as well as North Georgia, Armstrong State and Young Harris have all completed their schedules.
Carson-Newman's South Atlantic Conference rival Anderson rounds out the top 10 with a 34-14 record.
The Eagles open up South Atlantic Conference play Thursday at 3 p.m. against Queens.
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1 |
North Georgia |
39-10 |
44-10 |
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2 |
Armstrong St. |
28-10 |
30-11 |
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3 |
Limestone |
38-9 |
39-9 |
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4 |
Carson-Newman |
39-11 |
39-11 |
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5 |
Lenoir-Rhyne |
42-9 |
44-9 |
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6 |
Young Harris |
42-12 |
42-12 |
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7 |
Pfeiffer |
40-4 |
40-4 |
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8 |
Flagler |
37-19 |
37-19 |
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9 |
Georgia College |
30-17 |
30-19 |
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10 |
Anderson (SC) |
34-14 |
34-14 |
