KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Montana Western held steady at No. 4 and Carroll College climbed one spot to No. 7 in the latest NAIA Division I Women’s Basketball Coaches’ Top 25 Poll, the final rankings before the postseason started on Tuesday.
Western, which has the No. 1 seed in the Frontier Conference playoffs, kept its No. 4 rankings from the previous poll, sitting behind Freed-Hardeman (Tenn.), Campbellsville (Ky.) and Columbia (Mo.). Freed-Hardeman earned seven first-place votes to move up to No. 1 in the rankings.
Carroll was ranked eighth in the previous rankings but moved up to No. 7 this week. The Fighting Saints finished second in the Frontier and opened the Frontier playoffs with a 59-50 win over Montana Tech on Tuesday. Carroll will now host 20th-ranked Rocky Mountain College in the semifinal round on Friday. The Battlin’ Bears moved from 24th in the previous poll to 20th in this week’s rankings after finishing third in the Frontier. The Battlin’ Bears opened the playoffs with a dominant 72-46 win over Montana State-Northern.
Lewis-Clark State is the fourth team from the Frontier Conference ranked at No. 22, and the Warriors, too, started the league playoffs with a first-round win. Lewis-Clark defeated Providence 71-57 on Tuesday to advance to a semifinal matchup at Western on Friday.
Providence was among the teams in the “receiving votes” category. The Argos now must wait to learn if they will be invited to the NAIA national tournament with an at-large bid. The field for the national tournament, which will be March 13-19 at Billings, will be announced March 6.
For the complete NAIA women’s basketball top 25, please click here.
