FHSU Women’s Tabbed No. 3 in First Release of NCAA Regional Rankings

Fort Hays State Women’s Basketball is ranked No. 3 in the first set of NCAA Regional Rankings, released on Wednesday (Feb. 17). The top three teams in the region are from the MIAA as the picture for NCAA Tournament selections starts to take shape.

Fort Hays State, the host of the NCAA Central Region last year as the top-ranked team in the region, finds itself in a good position once again entering the final two weeks of the regular season schedule. The Tigers are third behind Missouri Western and Pittsburg State. Pittsburg State and Fort Hays State are dead even with the Griffons in amount of wins against in-region and Division II competition this year. PSU is 20-4 and FHSU is 20-3 while MWSU is 20-2.

Though FHSU has one less loss than Pittsburg State, the Gorillas have a win over the top-ranked team in the region. FHSU lost its only meeting with MWSU this year while PSU met MWSU twice in the regular season and split the series 1-1. FHSU and PSU do not have a head-to-head advantage against each other as the schools split their regular season games.

With Winona State at 21-2 against NCAA Division II opponents and 18-2 against in-region opponents, the rankings show the strength of the MIAA schedule compared to the NSIC and GAC. Arkansas Tech was 19-2 against Division II competition at the time this poll released, but its loss on Monday was not factored into this set of rankings.

Emporia State is the fourth team from the MIAA inside the top eight of the region rankings at No. 6. A cluster of teams from the NSIC round out the remainder of the list.

Below are the NCAA Central Region rankings for February 17, 2016.