Lacrosse Continues to Climb Polls 4/9/02

Jeannie Crawley Leads team in goals - 22

In the latest Brine/IWLCA lacrosse poll, announced Tuesday, Vanderbilt is ranked eighth in the nation. The Commodores moved up two spots from their previous best-ever ranking of tenth, which they have held for the past two weeks.

Vanderbilt (7-2, 3-0 ALC) just completed a five-game, undefeated homestand, which included victories over Connecticut, New Hampshire, Brown, Stanford and American Lacrosse Conference rival Ohio University.

The Commodores are off to their best start in school history. They began the season ranked 19th, but moved up to 11th after upset victories over ALC foes Johns Hopkins and Penn State. The Commodores then dropped tough matches to the top two teams in the country -- at that time, Duke and Georgetown -- before breaking off on their five-game win streak.

Vanderbilt remains the top team in the American Lacrosse Conference, in front of Penn State (10), Ohio State (15) and Johns Hopkins (17). The seven team league has over half of its members represented in the top-20 nationally.

The Commodores hit the road this weekend to play two matches in North Carolina. On Friday night, Vanderbilt will face off against the #4 UNC Tarheels at 7 p.m. in Chapel Hill. Sunday, Vanderbilt travels to Davidson, North Carolina, to play the Wildcats, who are also in the American Lacrosse Conference.