KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Our Lady of the lake (Texas) locks down the No. 1 ranking for a fifth-consecutive week in the 2015-16 NAIA Division I Women’s Basketball Coaches’ Top 25 Poll, the national office announced Tuesday. The final regular-season edition will be announced on Wednesday, March 9.
Official qualifiers and bracket for the 2016 NAIA Division I Women’s Basketball National Championship will be announced via a live video selection show at 5 p.m. CST on March 9. To track all conference tournament scores and brackets, click here.
Top 25 Highlights (historical information dates back to 1999-2000)
• Our Lady of the Lake was the unanimous No. 1 for a second-straight week, collecting all nine first-place votes and 219 total points.
• The Saints boast a 27-2 record, including a 18-0 mark in the Red River Athletic Conference (RRAC), en route to its second-consecutive conference regular-season title and third in program history. As the No. 1 seed in the RRAC Tournament, Our Lady of the Lake receives a bye into the semifinals and awaits the lowest remaining seed.
• The Saints have won an NAIA-best 27-straight games. The program’s last loss came on Nov. 15 at then-No. 7 Oklahoma City, 87-85.
• Four teams have held the No. 1 ranking this season – Our Lady of the Lake (five times), No. 6 Campbellsville (Ky.) (three times), No. 2 Westmont (Calif.) (two times) and No. 8 Vanguard (Calif.) (one time).
• For the seventh-straight week, Westmont checks in at No. 2. The Warriors claimed 212 total points and are 26-3 on the season.
• No. 3 Bethel (Tenn.) and No. 4 Lyon (Ark.) hold their positions for a second-straight week, while No. 5 The Master’s (Calif.) rounds out the top five. The Mustangs jumped one spot after winning five-of-six to close the regular-season.
• The positive movement was highlighted by two-spot jumps by No. 12 Wayland Baptist (Texas), No. 21 Great Falls (Mont.) and No. 23 Langston (Okla.).
• No team fell farther than No. 11 Columbia (Mo.), which dropped four places from its Feb. 23 perch. The Cougars, who opened the season with 19-straight wins, have lost three of their last four with two coming against unranked teams. Columbia is the No. 2 seed in the upcoming American Midwest Conference (AMC) Tournament and will play No. 7 seed Park (Mo.) on Thursday.
• No. 24 Baker (Kan.) is the only newcomer this week. The Wildcats last appeared on Jan. 5, 2016.
• Sixteen teams have been ranked in every poll this season.
• Thirty-two different programs have been ranked through 11 polls.
• The Frontier Conference, Heart of America Athletic Conference and Mid-South Conference lead all leagues with four teams represented each.
• No. 10 Freed-Hardeman (Tenn.) and No. 17 Oklahoma City have been listed in all 202 polls dating back to the start of the 1999-2000 season. No. 6 Vanguard is next in line with 169-straight mentions.
• Former member Union (Tenn.) leads all schools in all-time No. 1 rankings with 53, while Oklahoma City (49), Vanguard (41), Freed-Hardeman (18) and former member Southern Nazarene (Okla.) (15) are the only other programs with 10-or-more No. 1 rankings.
• Union (Ky.) and Vanguard are the only programs to have spent an entire season ranked No. 1 (Union: 2007-08, 2008-09, 2009-10, 2010-11) (Vanguard: 2005-06, 2006-07).
Poll Methodology
• The poll was voted upon by a panel of head coaches representing each of the conferences and the Association of Independent Institutions.
• The Top 25 is determined by a points system based on how each voter ranks the best teams. A team receives 30 points for each first-place vote, 29 for second-place and so on through the list.
• The highest and lowest ranking for each team (a non-rating is considered a low ratings) is removed and the team’s ranking will be recalculated with an additional point added to each team for every ballot (including discounted ballots) that the teams appears on.
• Teams that receive only one point in the ballot are not considered “receiving votes”
• For the complete Top 25 calendar, click here.
| RANK | LAST WEEK^ | SCHOOL (1st Place Votes) | WON | LOST | FINAL POINTS |
| 1 | 1 | Our Lady of the Lake (Texas) (9) | 27 | 2 | 219 |
| 2 | 2 | Westmont (Calif.) | 26 | 3 | 212 |
| 3 | 3 | Bethel (Tenn.) | 25 | 5 | 203 |
| 4 | 4 | Lyon (Ark.) | 26 | 3 | 198 |
| 5 | 6 | The Master’s (Calif.) | 24 | 4 | 180 |
| T6 | 5 | Campbellsville (Ky.) | 23 | 6 | 177 |
| T6 | 8 | Vanguard (Calif.) | 22 | 5 | 177 |
| 8 | 9 | Shawnee State (Ohio) | 25 | 5 | 174 |
| 9 | 10 | MidAmerica Nazarene (Kan.) | 24 | 5 | 160 |
| 10 | 11 | Freed-Hardeman (Tenn.) | 24 | 6 | 157 |
| 11 | 7 | Columbia (Mo.) | 26 | 4 | 154 |
| 12 | 14 | Wayland Baptist (Texas) | 22 | 4 | 146 |
| 13 | 13 | Central Methodist (Mo.) | 25 | 3 | 140 |
| 14 | 12 | Lewis-Clark State (Idaho) | 23 | 6 | 128 |
| 15 | 15 | Talladega (Ala.) | 22 | 4 | 125 |
| 16 | 16 | Montana State-Northern | 22 | 7 | 113 |
| 17 | 17 | Oklahoma City | 18 | 7 | 104 |
| 18 | 19 | Lindsey Wilson (Ky.) | 25 | 5 | 99 |
| 19 | 18 | Benedictine (Kan.) | 25 | 5 | 96 |
| 20 | 20 | Carroll (Mont.) | 21 | 7 | 86 |
| 21 | 23 | Great Falls (Mont.) | 21 | 9 | 82 |
| 22 | 21 | Pikeville (Ky.) | 21 | 7 | 67 |
| 23 | 25 | Langston (Okla.) | 21 | 6 | 62 |
| 24 | RV | Baker (Kan.) | 22 | 7 | 57 |
| 25 | 24 | Loyola (La.) | 20 | 7 | 49 |
Dropped from the Top 25: LSU Shreveport (La.) (No. 22)
Others receiving votes: LSU Shreveport (La.) 48; Auburn Montgomery (Ala.) 30; Martin Methodist (Tenn.) 19; Xavier (La.) 17; Cumberland (Tenn.) 16; Huston-Tillotson (Texas) 10; Culver-Stockton (Mo.) 8; William Woods (Mo.) 3.
^2015-16 Poll on Feb. 23, 2016
