After stunning their crosstown rivals in their home finale Saturday, the
Grand Canyon University Men's Lacrosse team has moved up to No. 17 in the latest 2022 New Balance Men's Collegiate Lacrosse Association (MCLA) Division I Coaches Poll. It's the second-biggest jump of the year in the rankings for the Lopes, since they leaped three spots from last week's No. 20 national ranking (
they moved from 25th to 20th in a single poll earlier in the season). The Lopes are now inching dangerously close to the
No. 16 ranking they enjoyed in March of 2019. The Lopes have been a part of six of the seven MCLA Polls this season, and it's the 90
th time in the last 93 MCLA Polls (dating back to Week 7 of the 2013 season) that GCU is among the 25 best teams in men's lacrosse. The Lopes' host conference, the Southwestern Lacrosse Conference, still remains the toughest conference in the nation with six teams ranked in the MCLA Top 25 (Concordia University Irvine drops to 3
rd, then three SLC teams are bunched together: the University of Arizona, Arizona State University and the University of Southern California are 11
th, 12
th and 13
th, respectively; while Chapman University is right above GCU at No. 16).
It wasn't difficult to see why the Lopes rose quickly, since
they dominated the No. 12 Sun Devils, 10-5, from start to finish at
GCU Soccer Stadium Saturday night. The Lopes' final regular season game happens two weekends from now at the home of the 11
th-ranked team in the country, the Arizona Wildcats, in Tucson, on Saturday, April 23.
The entire New Balance MCLA Coaches' Poll is listed below:
| Rank |
School |
Points |
1st-place votes |
Prev Rank |
| 1 |
Brigham Young |
608 |
9 |
1 |
| 2 |
Virginia Tech |
585 |
13 |
8 |
| 3 |
Concordia-Irvine (CA) |
579 |
2 |
2 |
| 4 |
Liberty (VA) |
547 |
1 |
4 |
| 5 |
Florida |
517 |
x |
5 |
| 6 |
Clemson (SC) |
500 |
x |
3 |
| 7 |
Minnesota |
477 |
x |
9 |
| 8 |
Georgia Tech |
470 |
x |
7 |
| 9 |
South Carolina |
416 |
x |
11 |
| 10 |
California |
380 |
x |
6 |
| 11 |
Arizona |
333 |
x |
14 |
| 12 |
Arizona State |
312 |
x |
15 |
| 13 |
Southern California |
301 |
x |
12 |
| 14 |
Northeastern |
273 |
x |
17 |
| 15 |
Boston College |
241 |
x |
13 |
| 16 |
Chapman (CA) |
227 |
x |
16 |
| 17 |
Grand Canyon |
223 |
x |
19 |
| 18 |
Santa Clara |
214 |
x |
10 |
| 19 |
Colorado State |
210 |
x |
18 |
| 20 |
Utah Valley |
135 |
x |
21 |
| 21 |
Texas |
125 |
x |
20 |
| 22 |
UC-Santa Barbara |
103 |
x |
NR |
| 23 |
Colorado |
97 |
x |
24 |
| 24 |
Auburn |
78 |
x |
23 |
| 25 |
Cal Poly |
41 |
x |
NR |
