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| Head coach Patrick Fung and the Lady Ice Lions remain 15th in the rankings. Photo: Allyssa Long |
For the third straight cycle, the Lady Ice Lions have checked into 15th place in the ACHA rankings. The latest compilation, including all games played through January 17th, was released on Wednesday afternoon.
Penn State went 1-6-0 between Ranking 2 and the present Ranking 3, and while that record doesn't look like much, the win was an upset of No. 5 Massachusetts on January 9th. The losses, most recently, include Sunday's meeting with defending national champion Liberty, a game that was tied 4-4 at the second intermission. Each of the other five losses also came to ranked teams: UMass, No. 2 Adrian and No. 12 Colorado.
The rankings are determined by an average of the collective opinion of the ACHA Division 1 competition committee (head coach Patrick Fung is one of its eight members), a computer ranking, and the averaged votes of all D1 coaches.
Status quo was also the theme outside of central Pennsylvania, as nine of the 15 slots stayed identical to Ranking 2. The only changes involved three pairs of teams trading consecutive numbers: Lindenwood-Belleville jumped Rhode Island for sixth, Robert Morris edged ahead of Minnesota for tenth, whole Colorado bumped Colorado State for 12th.
While Penn State's remaining margin for error in terms of making the ACHA National Tournament is close to zero, there are a few chances left to make a splash across Division 1. No. 14 Davenport (January 28th) and Vermont (January 30th and 31st) visit Pegula Ice Arena next weekend, followed by road games at Northeastern and No. 7 Rhode Island, and then a home series with No. 1 Liberty. The ECWHL playoffs, held February 19th through 21st in Amherst, MA, close PSU's schedule, while the days following that bring Ranking 4 and a reveal of the eight teams invited to Kalamazoo, MI to compete for the ACHA title in March.
Here is the complete ranking:
| .. | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Liberty | 9 | Michigan State | ||||
2 | Adrian | 10 | Robert Morris | ||||
3 | Miami | 11 | Minnesota | ||||
4 | Grand Valley State | 12 | Colorado | ||||
5 | Massachusetts | 13 | Colorado State | ||||
6 | LU-Belleville | 14 | Davenport | ||||
7 | Rhode Island | 15 | Penn State | ||||
8 | Michigan | ||||||
Others receiving votes: Vermont, Wisconsin, Ohio State | |||||||
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