Kansas City, Mo. - The Central Methodist women's program lands at No. 14 in the third edition of the NAIA Women's Basketball Coaches' Top 25 poll, which was released by the national office Wednesday.
Other Heart schools featured in the Top 25 include No. 15 Clarke, No. 25 Benedictine and (RV) Grand View.
The Eagles jumped out to a perfect 8-0 start through the month of November before a bout of COVID forced Central to cancel their first two games of Heart play. Central bounced back with a convincing 91-49 victory over William Penn on Dec. 8 before narrowly falling to Missouri Valley College 94-86 Saturday afternoon.
Central is currently averaging 83 points/game and have held seven of its opponents to under 70 points on the defensive side of the floor.
Senior guard Arleighshya McElroy is averaging 22.5 points/game, while freshman forward Leah Johnson is averaging a double-double with 11.2 points and 11.1 rebounds/contest.
Central is set to host Haskell Indian Nations University in a non-conference contest Saturday, Dec. 18 at 2:00 p.m. inside Puckett Field House.
To view the poll methodology and the complete Top 25 poll, please see below.
Poll Methodology
- The poll was voted upon by a panel of head coaches representing each of the conferences, Independents and Unaffiliated Groups.
- The Top 25 is determined by a points system based on how each voter ranks the best teams. A team receives 30 points for each first-place vote, 29 for second place and so on through the list.
- The highest and lowest ranking for each team (a non-rating is considered low ratings) is removed and the team's ranking will be recalculated with an additional point added to each team for every ballot (including discounted ballots) that the team appears on.
- Teams that receive only one point in the ballot are not considered "receiving votes."
| RANK | LAST TIME | SCHOOL [FIRST-PLACE VOTES] | RECORD | POINTS |
| 1 | 1 | Campbellsville (Ky.) [18] | 10-0 | 588 |
| 2 | 2 | Westmont (Calif.) [1] | 10-1 | 571 |
| 3 | 3 | Thomas More (Ky.) [2] | 9-1 | 556 |
| 4 | 4 | Southeastern (Fla.) | 11-1 | 532 |
| 5 | 5 | Carroll (Mont.) | 11-2 | 511 |
| 6 | 6 | Wayland Baptist (Texas) | 11-1 | 499 |
| 7 | 9 | Marian (Ind.) | 10-2 | 471 |
| 8 | 11 | The Master's (Calif.) | 11-0 | 454 |
| 9 | 8 | Sterling (Kan.) | 10-1 | 422 |
| 10 | 10 | Morningside (Iowa) | 8-3 | 420 |
| 11 | 13 | Indiana Wesleyan | 11-2 | 393 |
| 12 | 14 | Indiana Tech | 13-1 | 361 |
| 13 | 12 | Northwestern (Iowa) | 11-2 | 359 |
| 14 | 7 | Central Methodist (Mo.) | 9-3 | 331 |
| 15 | 17 | Clarke (Iowa) | 10-2 | 325 |
| 16 | 15 | Vanguard (Calif.) | 5-2 | 304 |
| 17 | 18 | Dakota State (S.D.) | 10-3 | 286 |
| 18 | 19 | Rio Grande (Ohio) | 14-0 | 279 |
| 19 | 16 | Saint Xavier (Ill.) | 9-3 | 269 |
| 20 | 25 | Bryan (Tenn.) | 11-0 | 207 |
| 21 | 24 | Montana Western | 7-2 | 167 |
| 22 | 25 | Concordia (Neb.) | 8-4 | 163 |
| 23 | 20 | Briar Cliff (Iowa) | 7-4 | 156 |
| 24 | 21 | Mount Vernon Nazarene (Ohio) | 9-3 | 136 |
| 25 | NR | Benedictine (Kan.) | 10-2 | 97 |
Dropped from the poll: Loyola (La.)
Receiving Polls: Loyola (La.) 93, Lewis-Clark State (Idaho) 81, Rust (Miss.) 80, Georgetown (Ky.) 71, Talladega (Ala.) 58, Science & Arts (Okla.) 45, St. Francis (Ill.) 34, Rocky Mountain (Mont.) 12, Tabor (Kan.) 11, Kansas Wesleyan 6, Mid-America Christian (Okla.) 6, Columbia (Mo.) 5, Lyon (Ark.) 5, Southern Oregon 5, Grand View (Iowa) 4, Rochester (Mich.) 4
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