After flirting with the prospect as the No. 2 team in the poll since the preseason, the Grand Canyon University Club Baseball team has moved up to the top spot in the latest National Club Baseball Association (NCBA) Rawlings Division I Poll. It's history-making for the Lopes, who have reached the No. 2 ranking each of the previous five polls (dating back to last year's final rankings) and eight times in their history, but have never reached the poll's pinnacle ranking until now.
 
The Lopes have been biding their time in the poll at 2^nd behind the team that prevented them from their first-ever national title last June: Penn State University. Both the defending champs and GCU remained undefeated against NCBA teams through the first six weeks of the season, with the Lopes sweeping all four of their Southern Pacific South Division series to rack up a 12-0 conference mark. The crack in the Nittany Lions' foundation came a week ago when then-10^th-ranked University of Tennessee downed PSU, 6-5. That – combined with the Lopes' dominant sweep of Northern Arizona University last weekend in Mesa (outscoring the Lumberjacks, 39-1, in the three games combined) – opened the door for the pollsters to drop Penn State down the 2^nd GCU's perennial SoPac Region rival California Polytechnic University moved up right behind the Nittany Lions in 3^rd, and Tennessee's win helped them jump into 4^th.
 
The Lopes don't have another SoPac South series on the schedule until the final weekend of the regular season a month from now but will still put the top ranking to the test this weekend as they head to Henderson, Nevada, for the NCBA's Swing Into Spring Tournament. The Lopes will face NCBA squads University of Wisconsin, Montana State University and Sonoma State University in the span of 19 hours beginning tomorrow (Saturday) afternoon, March 29. The Lopes will host that final regular season series at Colter Field on the GCU campus on Saturday and Sunday, April 26 and 27 against the University of Arizona, and will need just one win in the three-game set to clinch their 6^th consecutive SoPac South title. First pitch both days of the home series is scheduled for 10AM, and admission is FREE.
 
The full NCBA D1 Rankings are listed below:

Rank	Team	Total Pts	Prev Poll
1	Grand Canyon	380	2
2	Penn State	369	1
3	Cal Poly	344	6
4	Tennessee	332	10
5	North Carolina State	285	12
6	Iowa State	266	4
7	Oregon	265	9
8	Florida State	255	11
9	Michigan	194	3
10	Auburn (GA)	163	13
11	Louisiana State	156	14
12	Florida Gulf Coast	149	17
13	Arlington Baptist (TX)	142	19
14	Cal Davis	131	NR
15	Nevada	129	NR
16	Utah State	88	7
17	Texas A&M	83	16
18	Central Florida	60	NR
19	Boise State	55	NR
20	Miami (OH)	47	NR