KANSAS CITY, Mo. - With conference tournaments in full swing, there's a new No. 1 in NAIA Women's Golf.

Dalton State (Ga.) claimed 11 first-place votes to take over the top position, closing the regular season by tying for first place with No. 4 SCAD Savannah (Ga.) and No. 7 William Carey (Miss.), and led by Jia Kataria, the Roadrunners got their postseason going with a 53-stroke win earlier this week in the Southern States Athletic Conference Women's Golf Championship. Kataria matched teammate Sara Burger with a first-round 70 and then pulled away for individual medalist honors, finishing 7-under to claim a win. 

No. 3 Marian (Ind.) was a factor in bumping No. 2 Keiser (Fla.), upsetting the previously top-ranked Seahawks at the Music City Classic. Keiser still picked up five first-place votes to claim No. 2, 24 points ahead of Marian, as the Knights edged SCAD Savannah by two points despite the Bees picking up the 17th first-place vote in the rating. SCAD Savannah did manage to move British Columbia, switching places at No. 4 and No. 5 with the defending national champions.

The remainder of the top 10 stayed the same, although Cumberlands (Ky.) did split a previous tie at No. 10 with Embry-Riddle (Ariz.), now No. 11. There was one new face to the top 25, as Milligan (Tenn.) replaced Lawrence Tech (Mich.) at No. 25. 

Friday's rating was the second-to-last, this season, with the final rating scheduled for May 8, when the NAIA announces the field for the 31st-Annual Women's Golf National Championship, May 19-22 at Eagle Crest Golf Club in Ypsilanti, Mich.

Trend	Rank	Last Time		Institution [First-Place Votes]	Final Points
▲	1	2		Dalton State (Ga.) [11]	462
▼	2	1		Keiser (Fla.) [5]	454
●	3	3		Marian (Ind.)	430
▲	4	5		SCAD Savannah (Ga.) [1]	428
▼	5	4		British Columbia	407
●	6	6		SCAD Atlanta (Ga.)	395
●	7	7		William Carey (Miss.)	377
●	8	8		Loyola (La.)	357
●	9	9		Indiana Wesleyan	351
●	10	T-10		Cumberlands (Ky.)	331
▼	11	T-10		Embry-Riddle (Ariz.)	321
●	12	12		Southeastern (Fla.)	302
●	13	13		Pikeville (Ky.)	284
▲	14	15		Texas Wesleyan	276
▲	15	16		Lindsey Wilson (Ky.)	258
▲	16	17		Cumberland (Tenn.)	241
▼	17	14		Coastal Georgia	226
▲	18	19		Taylor (Ind.)	203
▲	19	20		Rocky Mountain (Mont.)	199
▼	20	18		Lewis-Clark State (Idaho)	189
●	21	21		Truett McConnell (Ga.)	170
●	22	22		Oregon Tech	151
●	23	23		Oklahoma City	135
●	24	24		Arizona Christian	118
▲	25	RV		Milligan (Tenn.)	108
Dropped out of Top 25: Lawrence Tech (Mich.)
Receiving Votes: OUAZ (Ariz.) 83, UT Southern (Tenn.) 69, Lawrence Tech (Mich.), 57, USAO (Okla.), 29, Bethel (Ind.) 16, New College of Florida 14, Morningside (Iowa) 11, Freed-Hardeman (Tenn.) 8, Ave Maria (Fla.) 2.

Key:
RV - Receiving Votes

NR - Not Ranked

Climbed -▲

Dropped -▼

Steady - ●

Ratings Methodology

• The rating is rated by a panel of head coaches representing each of the conferences and unaffiliated groupings.
• The Top 25 is determined by a points system based on how each rater rates the best teams. A team receives 30 points for each first-place vote, 29 for second-place, 28 for third-place and so on through the list.
• The highest and lowest ratings for each team (a non-rating is considered a low rating) are removed. The team’s rating will be recalculated with an additional point added to each team for every ballot (including discounted ballots) that the team appears on.
• Teams that receive only one point in the ballot are not considered “receiving votes”.