Continuing its steady climb up the rankings, the
Grand Canyon University Men's Lacrosse team rose to No. 15 in the latest 2022 New Balance Men's Collegiate Lacrosse Association (MCLA) Division I Coaches Poll. The Lopes have
now moved up five spots in the last two polls combined. The new ranking is also the most respect the Lopes have enjoyed in the poll
since the end of March three years ago when they were ranked 13th. The Lopes have now been ranked in all but one of the eight MCLA Polls this season, and believe it or not, it's the 91
st time in the last 94 MCLA Polls (dating back to Week 7 of 2013) that GCU is among the 25 best teams in men's lacrosse. How tough is the Lopes' host conference, the Southwestern Lacrosse Conference? It sports the most teams in the poll: six (Concordia University Irvine moves up to 2
nd, Arizona State University inches up to 11
th followed by the University of Southern California at 12
th; the University of Arizona, GCU and Chapman University are all right behind each other at 14
th, 15
th and 16
th, respectively). However, two of those teams, ASU and Chapman, failed to make the postseason.
After dropping their regular season finale Saturday in Tucson to No. 14 U of A, the Lopes enter the SLC Tournament as the No. 4 seed. That pits the Lopes against top-seeded CUI to open the two-day tournament at 4PM this Friday, April 29 in Tucson. A Lopes' win sends them to the SLC Championship Game Saturday morning at 10AM against the winner of Friday's other semifinal matchup between second-seeded Arizona and third-seeded USC.
The entire New Balance MCLA Coaches' Poll is listed below:
| Rank |
School |
Points |
1st-place votes |
Prev Rank |
| 1 |
Virginia Tech |
645 |
24 |
2 |
| 2 |
Concordia-Irvine (CA) |
611 |
x |
3 |
| 3 |
Brigham Young |
588 |
2 |
1 |
| 4 |
Liberty (VA) |
556 |
x |
4 |
| 5 |
Florida |
540 |
x |
5 |
| 6 |
Minnesota |
509 |
x |
7 |
| 7 |
Georgia Tech |
487 |
x |
8 |
| 8 |
Clemson (SC) |
479 |
x |
6 |
| 9 |
South Carolina |
476 |
x |
9 |
| 10 |
California |
402 |
x |
10 |
| 11 |
Arizona State |
342 |
x |
12 |
| 12 |
Southern California |
308 |
x |
13 |
| 13 |
Northeastern |
302 |
x |
14 |
| 14 |
Arizona |
282 |
x |
11 |
| 15 |
Grand Canyon |
254 |
x |
17 |
| 16 |
Chapman (CA) |
251 |
x |
16 |
| 17 |
Texas |
236 |
x |
21 |
| 18 |
Boston College |
233 |
x |
15 |
| 19 |
Santa Clara |
174 |
x |
18 |
| 20 |
Utah Valley |
172 |
x |
20 |
| 21 |
Colorado |
158 |
x |
23 |
| 22 |
Colorado State |
154 |
x |
19 |
| 23 |
Cal Poly |
83 |
x |
25 |
| 24 |
UC-Santa Barbara |
69 |
x |
22 |
| 25 |
Auburn |
34 |
x |
24 |
