Simpson breaks into national rankings
INDIANOLA, Iowa – The Simpson women's basketball team is ranked No. 20 in the first D3hoops.com Top 25 poll and No. 25 in the USA TODAY Sports Top 25 Coaches' Poll, which were released early this week.
Simpson was previously unranked in each poll.
Simpson received 107 points in the D3hoops.com Top 25 poll, which is voted on by a panel of 25 coaches, sports information directors and media members across the country.
Simpson received 11 points in the USA TODAY Sports Top 25 Coaches' Poll, which is voted on by nine head coaches at Division III institutions who are members of the Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA).
The Storm are off to a perfect 5-0 start to the season, beating opponents by an average of 25.2 points per game. Simpson went 3-0 last week with a home win over AIB and wins over Gustavus Adolphus and Northland at the Buena Vista Classic.
Senior forward Kate Nielsen (Urbandale, Iowa/Johnston) leads the team in scoring and rebounding, averaging 21.2 points per game and 6.6 rebounds per game. She has already earned Iowa Conference Player of the Week honors twice during the young season.
The Storm put their unblemished record on the line Wednesday, Nov. 28 when they travel to Mount Pleasant to face Iowa Wesleyan at 7 p.m.
| D3hoops.com Top 25 Poll | ||||
| No. | School (1st votes) | Rec | Pts | Prev |
| 1 | Depauw (23) | 5-0 | 621 | 4 |
| 2 | Mount Union | 4-0 | 569 | 6 |
| 3 | UW-Stevens Point (2) | 3-1 | 514 | 7 |
| 4 | Calvin | 4-1 | 510 | 1 |
| 5 | St. Thomas | 2-1 | 500 | 3 |
| 6 | Lewis and Clark | 5-0 | 438 | 11 |
| 7 | Leganon Valley | 4-0 | 428 | 10 |
| 8 | Washington U. | 3-1 | 423 | 9 |
| 9 | Hope | 3-0 | 416 | 12 |
| 10 | Messiah | 3-0 | 353 | 13 |
| 11 | Amherst | 3-0 | 347 | 15 |
| 12 | Tufts | 4-0 | 308 | 17 |
| 13 | Thomas More | 4-1 | 302 | 14 |
| 14 | UW-Whitewater | 3-1 | 287 | 8 |
| 15 | York (Pa.) | 4-0 | 265 | 18 |
| 16 | Emmanuel | 3-0 | 229 | 19 |
| 17 | Illinois Wesleyan | 2-2 | 223 | 5 |
| 18 | Williams | 4-0 | 221 | 23 |
| 19 | Emory | 4-0 | 119 | 22 |
| 20 | Simpson | 5-0 | 107 | -- |
| 21 | George Fox | 1-2 | 99 | 2 |
| 22 | Mary Washington | 4-1 | 84 | 16 |
| 23 | Babson | 4-0 | 82 | -- |
| 24 | Ohio Northern | 4-1 | 80 | -- |
| 25 | St. Norbert | 3-0 | 78 | -- |
| USA TODAY Sports Top 25 Coaches' Poll | ||||
| No. | School (1st votes) | Prev | Rec | Pts |
| 1 | Depauw | 3 | 5-0 | 200 |
| 2 | Mount Union | 4 | 4-0 | 188 |
| 3 | Calvin | 5 | 4-1 | 180 |
| 4 | UW-Stevens Point | 1 | 3-1 | 176 |
| 5 | St. Thomas | 8 | 2-1 | 167 |
| 6 | Washington U. | 6 | 3-1 | 165 |
| 7 | Leabanon Valley | 9 | 4-0 | 174 |
| 8 | Lewis and Clark | 10 | 5-0 | 139 |
| 9 | Amherst | 11 | 3-0 | 129 |
| 10 | Messiah | 14 | 3-0 | 117 |
| 11 | Hope | 12 | 3-0 | 114 |
| 12 | UW-Whitewater | 15 | 3-1 | 101 |
| 13 | Tufts | 16 | 4-0 | 99 |
| 14 | Illinois Wesleyan | 7 | 2-2 | 95 |
| 15 | York (Pa.) | 17 | 4-0 | 89 |
| 16 | Emory | 19 | 4-0 | 69 |
| 17 | Emmanuel | 20 | 3-0 | 64 |
| 18 | Thomas More | 18 | 4-1 | 62 |
| 19 | Mary Washington | 13 | 4-1 | 54 |
| 20 | George Fox | 2 | 1-2 | 51 |
| 21 | Babson | 22 | 4-0 | 50 |
| 22 | Williams | 25 | 4-0 | 30 |
| 23 | Carthage | 23 | 3-1 | 28 |
| 24 | Juaniata | 24 | 3-0 | 25 |
| 25 | Simpson | NR | 5-0 | 11 |
