[Women's Basketball] Mustangs hold at No. 11

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Despite a pair of league wins last week, Mount Mercy couldn't squeeze its way into the top 10, holding steady at No. 11 for the second week in a row in the NAIA Division II Women's Basketball Coaches' Top 25 Poll.

The Mustangs (8-4, 3-0 MCC), who have won eight of their last 10 games after losing their first two games of the season, beat William Penn, 82-71, and Clarke, 86-70, in Midwest Collegiate Conference action last week. Mount Mercy and Viterbo (Wis.) are the only unbeaten teams in the league heading into the holiday break.

The Mustangs made a huge leap into the top 25 last week after winning at then-sixth-ranked Grand View on Dec. 3. Mount Mercy's two losses at the start of the season came to fifth-ranked Morningside and eighth-ranked Hastings (Neb.). Indiana Wesleyan (11-0) is the top-ranked team in the nation for the third week in a row. Mount Mercy has 258 points in this week's rating and closed the gap with No. 10 Bethel (Ind.) (263 pts.), a team the Mustangs beat last month.

Mount Mercy has a pair of games left before the Christmas break, traveling to Milwaukee, Wis., for the La Quinta Stritch Holiday Classic on Dec. 19-20. The Mustangs face the host team, 18th-ranked Cardinal Stritch (Wis.), on Monday at 5:00 p.m., then take on St. Francis (Ill.) on Tuesday at 3:00 p.m.