[Women's Basketball] Mustangs make huge leap in this week’s ratings

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- After Saturday's win over then-sixth-ranked Grand View, the Mount Mercy women's basketball team moved all the way to No. 11 in this week's NAIA Division II Women's Basketball Coaches' Top 25 poll.

The Mustangs (6-4) were 25th in the preseason poll, but dropped out of the top 25 in last week's first regular season rating. But Saturday's 80-63 road victory over the Vikings in their conference opener pushed Mount Mercy to its highest ranking since the 1994-95 campaign. The Mustangs went all the way to the NAIA Division II Final Four that season.

Mount Mercy is 3-2 against current top 25 teams. After opening the season with losses to No. 8 Hastings (Neb.) and No. 5 Morningside, the Mustangs knocked off this week's No. 9 team, Bethel (Ind.), and then-top-ranked Northwestern, which is now ranked 20th. Mount Mercy has a showdown with 15th-ranked Cardinal Stritch (Wis.) coming up on the road on Dec. 19.

Indiana Wesleyan (9-0) is No. 1 for the second week in a row with 343 points. Briar Cliff (9-1) is second with 332 points, followed by Concordia (Mich.) (10-0) with 320. With 216 points, Mount Mercy is 23 points behind 10th-ranked Eastern Oregon (9-1) and 15 points in front of No. 12 Kansas Wesleyan (6-4). Grand View dropped to No. 14 this week with 188 points, whileanother  Midwest Collegiate Conference rival, St. Ambrose, is at No. 28 with 61 points.

The Mustangs host William Penn on Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. and Clarke on Saturday at 1:00 p.m. at Hennessey Recreation Center. After wrapping up finals week, Mount Mercy travels to Milwaukee, Wis., for the La Quinta Stritch Holiday Classic where its will face 15th-ranked Cardinal Stritch and St. Francis (Ill.).

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