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Cumberlands Wins Out: NAIA Lacrosse All Stars Coaches Poll

The NAIA has been growing for number of years now but there as always been one consistent road bump, being the lack of national coverage. The league currently only offers one ranking system which features a rating committee comprised of eight raters; two raters per conference/group. All of these rankings are handled on an NAIA level and release publicly every other week compared to once a week.

We decided we would take this into our own hands and contact every NAIA coach directly to get their thoughts on the top ten on a week-to-week basis. This way we can get a better understanding of what coaches across the league value in a national title caliber team and see how their thoughts relate to the NAIA polls.

Here is our second Lacrosse All Stars NAIA Coaches’ Poll of the 2023 season.

Lacrosse All Stars NAIA Coaches’ Poll


Poll Methodology

Every coach in the NAIA was sent a poll early Monday morning and was given twenty-four hours to provide their top ten rankings. It was as simple as ranking teams one through ten. With this data, we then were able to tally the votes via a point system and comprise the final rankings which you see below.

  1. Reinhardt
  2. Indiana Tech
  3. Keiser
  4. Cumberlands
  5. Aquinas
  6. Webber
  7. St. Ambrose
  8. Siena Heights
  9. Tennessee Wesleyan
  10. Benedictine

How do these results compare the NAIA rankings?

NAIA Men’s Lacrosse Preseason Poll


Poll Methodology

  • The rating committee is comprised of eight raters – two raters per conference/group.
  • Each conference/group produces a conference rating from which raters will use to compile their national ballot. Only teams represented on the conference rating are eligible for the national ballot.
  • Each rater will submit a top 15 ballot, which will be used to produce the Top 10 national rating and a list of other teams receiving votes.
  1. Reinhardt
  2. Indiana Tech
  3. Cumberlands
  4. Aquinas
  5. St. Ambrose
  6. Keiser
  7. Tennessee Wesleyan
  8. Siena Heights
  9. Benedictine
  10. Webber

What Does This Tell Us?


St. Ambrose Drops 1 Spot

After going 0-2 on the weekend, the Fighting Bees only dropped down one spot. St. Ambrose lost to No.1 Reinhardt 20-9 and to No.4 (we are using the LAS rankings listed above) Cumberlands 12-9. The Fighting Bees struggled to get anything going against Reinhardt but at this point in the season and with Reinhardt’s reputation that is to be expected. Their game against Cumberlands started as a blowout before the Bees were able to reel themselves back in towards the end.

St. Ambrose certainly is not out of the fight on a national level but the AAC proves yet again to be the best conference in the NAIA.

How Good is Cumberlands Lacrosse?

Cumberlands is able to enter the week 2-0 after taking on two highly touted preseason opponents, but how good are William Penn and St. Ambrose? After the weekend, its debatable if William Penn and St. Ambrose were overhyped coming into the year leaving some questions surrounding if Cumberlands is still an elite lacrosse team in 2023 after the wins. The Cumberlands Men’s Lacrosse program has proven that they can compete on a national level, but it is truly difficult to tell how good this team is until conference play begins especially considering how many talented players the team lost heading into this year.

Reinhardt is Still on Top

Out of the 18 coaches who voted in this poll, Reinhardt received 18 first place votes. The Eagles expectation of a national championship still remains true but there was one glaring concern from this past weekend; the lack of depth. With only 26 players on roster the sideline was looking a little empty especially when compared to years past. Will this be an issue later into the season?

William Penn Struggles

What a difficult weekend for William Penn. The Statesmen took on two of the best teams in the country and it really seemed like they never stood a chance. Reinhardt dismantled William Penn heading into halftime with a 15-0 lead. Growing frustrations from players on the field and on the sidelines was evident, but there is still hope for this team. With games against Keiser, Ottawa, and Madonna on the horizon, the Statesmen can still pull their season together after some glaring holes were exposed this past weekend.