Just one week after winning its first softball National Championship, Christopher Newport University finished the year where it spent most of 2022, as the top-ranked team in the National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) Division III Top 25 Coaches Poll.
The Captains, who finished the year with a 47-1 record, were the top-ranked team in the country for the final nine weeks, and looked the part throughout, dropping just one contest all season, and winning their final 24 games. They averaged 8.6 runs per game while allowing just 84 runs all season.
Keith Parr's team was a perfect 12-0 in the postseason without having to leave Virginia, including beating fellow NCAA Finals participant Salisbury in the Coast-to-Coast Athletic Conference Tournament and sweeping two hard-fought games from 2021 national champion and local rival Virginia Wesleyan in the Super Regionals. At the finals site in Salem, Va., the Captains won five straight games, including two over Trine University, to claim the crown. The Thunder of Trine finished the year ranked second in the country.
All eight national finals participants finished ranked in the top 12, with third-place finishers Texas Lutheran and Berry, and fifth-place finishers Salisbury and Eastern Connecticut State occupying spots No. 3-6. Seventh-place finishers Millikin and Worcester Polytechnic returned to the rankings to close the year at ninth and 12th, respectively. Virginia Wesleyan and Belhaven, who both lost in the Super Regionals, were seventh and eighth, while Bethel and Randolph-Macon tied for the 10th spot.
The NFCA Division III Top 25 Coaches Poll is selected by ten NCAA Division III head coaches representing the ten NCAA regions. Final 2022 records are listed, with first-place votes in parentheses.
NFCA Division III Top 25 Softball Coaches Poll – June 7, 2022
| Rank | Team | Points | 2022 Record | Previous |
| 1 | Christopher Newport (10) | 250 | 47-1 | 1 |
| 2 | Trine | 240 | 35-13 | 20 |
| 3 | Texas Lutheran | 230 | 45-6 | 2 |
| 4 | Berry | 220 | 36-13 | 10 |
| 5 | Salisbury | 210 | 42-8 | 4 |
| 6 | Eastern Connecticut State | 200 | 44-7 | 3 |
| 7 | Belhaven | 190 | 41-8 | 5 |
| 8 | Virginia Wesleyan | 180 | 36-13 | 9 |
| 9 | Millikin | 170 | 37-9 | RV |
| T10 | Bethel | 155 | 37-7 | 12 |
| T10 | Randolph-Macon | 155 | 35-11 | 16 |
| 12 | Worcester Polytechnic Institute | 140 | 35-17 | NR |
| 13 | Case Western Reserve | 130 | 30-12 | T25 |
| 14 | Linfield | 120 | 38-9 | 6 |
| 15 | East Texas Baptist | 110 | 33-12 | 7 |
| 16 | Concordia (Wis.) | 100 | 36-6 | 18 |
| 17 | Wartburg | 90 | 30-4 | T25 |
| 18 | Mary Hardin-Baylor | 80 | 32-11 | 11 |
| 19 | Birmingham-Southern | 70 | 32-8 | 15 |
| 20 | Piedmont | 60 | 31-11 | 14 |
| 21 | Rowan | 50 | 35-10 | 17 |
| 22 | DePauw | 40 | 35-11 | 8 |
| T23 | Mount St. Joseph | 11 | 34-12 | NR |
| T23 | Tufts | 11 | 36-12 | NR |
| 25 | Babson | 10 | 38-10 | 23 |
Others receiving votes: Ohio Northern 8, WashU 7, and Arcadia 1.
Dropped out: Amherst, Buena Vista, Geneseo, Illinois Wesleyan, Roanoke, Rochester, Susquehanna
Original source can be found here.
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