2026 Women’s Soccer Top 25

[Gregory Sager]

BTW, thanks to Scott Peterson at the D3 Stat Lab for really getting into the weeds with that research. I learned a lot that will help me out if I ever have to explain a similar situation when I'm on the air.

[CentPA]

You have to love October Saturday's in D3 soccer!  Based on the NCAA scores page, there are 181 games being played today which means that more than 82% of teams in D3 women's soccer will see action today.

For the first time this season ALL teams in the top 25 will be playing on the same day.  Maybe even more noteworthy, there are no non-conference games involving the top 25 - they are all playing conference games today!

There are two games involving top 25 teams where both opponents are in the top 25.  As you can probably guess, with the UAA conference having 6 of 8 teams in the top 25, both games are matchups between UAA teams.  This afternoon (1:30pm EDT), #9 Emory will be hosting #23 Carnegie Mellon.  Then this evening (8:30pm), #22 NYU will be hosting #21 Chicago.  The other UAA games today are #1 Wash U traveling to Brandeis (2:30pm), and #10 Rochester hosting Case Western (7:30pm).  Rochester is looking to put an end to two straight ties at home while Case Western looks to turn a corner and get back into the top 25.

One of the early games today is at 11am.  #13 North Central travels to Elmhurst for their second conference game this year.  The weather around Chicago looks good so hopefully this game will take place (sorry I couldn't help myself  )

The NESCAC is busy as well.  At 11am, #6 Wesleyan is at (RV) Hamilton, and #8 Colby is at (RV) Middlebury.  At 12pm, #3 Tufts is at Amherst, and then at 1:30pm, #18 Williams is hosting Connecticut.

Too many games to highlight them all.  If you love D3 women's soccer and watching top 25 teams play, you could be busy from 11am this morning to around 10:30pm this evening (and you will need multiple screens)!
 

[DagarmanSpartan]

The CWRU women succeeded where the men failed, taking down #10 Rochester on the road.

Maybe they can break into the Top 25 next week.

[CentPA]

Good game to pay attention to today:

#1 Wash U that traveled to Boston yesterday to play their conference game against Brandeis decided to take advantage of the trip to Massachusetts and have another game today in the region!

At 12 noon #1 Wash U will face off against #5 MIT

I love that the coaches got together and agreed to this non conference game bringing two really good teams together.  This will be the toughest test for Wash U since the end of last year.

[CentPA]

The first official NCAA NPI rankings are out: through games 10/04/26

Huge differences at this point in the year between the USC top 25 and the NPI rankings!

[jknezek]

The first official NCAA NPI rankings are out: through games 10/04/26

Huge differences at this point in the year between the USC top 25 and the NPI rankings!

The USC is pretty useless. I miss the old d3soccer.com poll. Big NPI points difference between 3 and 4. The NPI on the top 3 is just huge right now.

[CentPA]

How about North Central sitting at #1 in the NPI (even ahead of Wash U) .. it can pay to not play!

[WUPHF]

How about North Central sitting at #1 in the NPI (even ahead of Wash U) .. it can pay to not play!

The only team that has a chance of finishing ahead of Washington University is Tufts.  The worst team in the UAA would be the third best in the CCIW.

[ziggy]

The first official NCAA NPI rankings are out: through games 10/04/26

Huge differences at this point in the year between the USC top 25 and the NPI rankings!

Comment I made on the men's soccer board applies here:

FYI, the NCAA erroneously included Azusa Pacific and Saint Francis in these rankings (a problem common to other sports NPIs released today). As first year provisionals, there is no question they should not appear in the rankings and they should not be a countable opponent. Second year provisionals JWU Charlotte and Regent were correctly excluded.

[CentPA]

The first official NCAA NPI rankings are out: through games 10/04/26

Huge differences at this point in the year between the USC top 25 and the NPI rankings!

Comment I made on the men's soccer board applies here:

FYI, the NCAA erroneously included Azusa Pacific and Saint Francis in these rankings (a problem common to other sports NPIs released today). As first year provisionals, there is no question they should not appear in the rankings and they should not be a countable opponent. Second year provisionals JWU Charlotte and Regent were correctly excluded.

Thanks for posting this here - appreciate it!

[CentPA]

The Wash U / MIT game yesterday was fairly competitive with Wash U winning at MIT 2-1.  The stats show Wash U leading in shots 16-9 and SOG 9-5 and the corners were tied 3-3.  Yesterday's stats were very similar to their meeting last year in the sweet 16 (at Messiah University) with Wash U winning 1-0.  In that game Wash U led in shots 15-9 and SOG 8-4 but MIT led in corners 7-4 in that game. 

I watched the last 15 minutes live (on Flo$port$) at a restaurant on my phone.  For a brief moment, I saw the team in the red kits dominating the team in the white kits and assumed Wash U was kind of having their way late in the game.  It wasn't long until I realized that MIT was in the red kits and Wash U was wearing the 'home' white kits!  For those last 15 minutes, MIT had more of the possession and the most dangerous chances with Lanthier making a really good save to keep MIT from tying the game.

Later I watched the entire game on replay (might as well get my money's worth) and clearly in the first half Wash U was the better team with possession.  However, their first goal was scored on a corner kick that bounced around in front of MIT's goal and found the foot of triple M (Monica Morales-Martinez).  Late in the half MIT would find the equalizer on a great (and quick) run of play goal down the right side with a really nice cross and finish by Chloe Dai to Amara Ukomadu.

Wash U would score the winning goal on a penalty kick after Colpitts was taken down in the box and Viscovich would score the goal and Wash U would go on for the 2-1 win.

Coach Conlon would get a yellow card late in the game for arguing with the ref on a foul call.  It is the first yellow card all year for Wash U.  Interestingly, it was against MIT last year that Coach Conlon got his only yellow card in 2025!  I don't know if it has something to do with MIT or if it is just a coincidence 

 

[CentPA]

I think the only way Wash U doesn't win their 3rd straight National Championship is if they 'trip up' in the sweet 16, elite 8, final 4, or championship game.

They'll make the NCAA tournament without a doubt.  I know there is a lot of soccer to be played yet but I can't imagine a scenario where Wash U isn't playing in the second weekend of the tournament.  After that, as long as they play their A game, I don't know that anyone can beat them.  However, if they have a down game past that first weekend then I do think they could loose given the competition at that stage.

The team has so much talent at every position on the field and a deep bench to go with it!  Right now they have 18 players (yes 18) that have scored a goal this season with 11 players that have multiple goals!  Oh and besides scoring 57 goals in 11 games, they have only given up 3 goals all year.

[Ron Boerger]

Schools in the NPI top 25 (reflecting results through Sunday), not in the USC top 25:

School	Record	NPI Rank
Trinity(TX)	6-0-0	8
Carleton	7-1-0	9
Vassar	5-0-3	14
Batten	8-0-2	15
Puget Sound	8-0-1	22
CNU	6-1-3	23

[CentPA]

Here is the new USC poll: National - Poll 4 - October 6, 2026

No change in the top 5 but Wesleyan goes from #6 to basically #26 being the first team mentioned for receiving votes.  Their two straight road losses to Trinity (CT) and Hamilton really dropped them in the rankings.

Batten, Hamilton, and Trinity (TX) enter the top 25 at #20, #23, and #25 respectively.

Besides Wesleyan, Montclair who was #25 dropped out and North Central who was #13 dropped out.  North Central is interesting because since last weeks poll they only had one tie to Illinois Wesleyan and the "postponed" game against Chicago .. does the USC know something we don't or are they dinging North Central for the no show.??  To go from #13 to #35 (last team reported receiving votes) on your first blemish of the year, a 2-2 tie, seems a little rough.

[CentPA]

Here are the three biggest discrepancies between the USC top 25 and the NPI that I could identify:

#1 Pomona-Pitzer: they are ranked #8 in the USC poll but #51 in the NPI.  Difference of 43 places.

#2 North Central: they are ranked (effectively) #35 in the USC but #1 in the country in the NPI.
      Difference of 34 places.

#3 Messiah: they are ranked #6 in the USC but #33 in the NPI.  Difference of 27 places.