Arizona’s 3-0 in the Pacific Desert / John Dalton Photography
This past weekend was a little quieter than recent competition weekends, but that doesn’t mean the DI Spring College Ranking was idle.
Ideally, the rankings do not like to move idle teams, unless that idling period extends for a longer amount of time, allowing for active teams to improve and close in. All idle teams – BYU, Virginia Tech (forfeit win against Clemson), UVA, UC Davis, Oregon, Oregon State and Western Washington – retained their ranks from the previous week.
UCF took a 71-point halftime lead against Florida State before working the bench and building out to a 107-10 win. Fullback Dasha Plotnikov led all point-scorers on two tries and nine conversions. Knights sent hooker Kayli Hannah, No. 8 Christina Norman (2), centers Maddie Ross (3) and Jennifer Fasano (2), wings LaVenda Waheed and Julia Mortellaro (3), and reserves Kya Williams, Sofia Uribe and Nneoma Ebiringah into the try zone. Mary Watkins also added conversions.
In the Pacific Desert, Arizona traveled to Grand Canyon for a Friday night lights match, and won 43-19. Read more from Wildcats head coach Rusty Wortman. The Wildcats switched spots with the Lopes on the rankings, marking the biggest move of the week.
UC San Diego is still on the watch list, having lost a 10-point game to Arizona in Tucson, and rebounding with a 27-12 win against UC Santa Barbara last weekend. Christy Xie and Megan Lloyd scored for the Tritons in the first half and an additional penalty try put UCSD up 17-0 at the break. Santa Barbara got on the board through Vivian Badillo Velasco and Anna Haggart (17-7) but then back-to-back tries from reserve Aoife Noonan gave San Diego a 27-7 lead with the fourth quarter to play. UCSB put down one more try through Alexus Espino, but the bonus-point win belonged to the Tritons. Also, UCLA beat CSU Northridge 19-0.
The northern division of the Pacific Mountain conference was idle, but the western division was active. Stanford and Chico State endured double-header weekends. The Cardinal played both games at home and shut down Chico State, now off the rankings, 65-7 on Saturday and then Fresno State 78-7 on Sunday. The Wildcats then returned home to host Cal on Sunday, the visiting Bears won 37-7. Stanford and Cal retain their rankings from the previous week. The Cardinal had the hardest task on the weekend, but Cal shouldn’t be “punished” for also getting its job done. Ultimately, it’s the game between Stanford, Cal and UC Davis that will impact the rankings.
Important DI games for Feb. 15-16:
Blue Ridge
UVA @ James Madison
USC @ Virginia Tech
Florida
Florida State @ Florida
Pacific Desert
UC Santa Barbara @ Arizona State
UC Santa Barbara @ Arizona
UCLA @ BYU
UC San Diego @ BYU
Pacific Mountain
West
UC Davis @ Chico State
Cal @ Fresno State
North
Washington State @ Oregon
Oregon State @ Washington