Lake Forest College Sports Information
May 1, 2002
Contact: Mike Wajerski, SID

Lake Forest Ranked 11th in the Country in Latest Coaches Poll
Team's first-ever national ranking
  

 Sixth-year head coach Diane Kanney has her Foresters ranked 11th in the nation.
LAKE FOREST, IL - The latest USA Today/National Fastpitch Coaches Association NCAA Division III rankings were released Wednesday (May 1st) and, for the first time in school history, Lake Forest made the list. Despite not being listed at all in the previous rankings two weeks ago, the 23-10 Foresters, who are led by sixth-year head coach Diane Kanney, climbed all the way to a tie at the #11 position.

Undefeated (31-0) Pacific Lutheran University (Tacoma, WA) is the top-ranked team. Central College (Pella, IA) is 31-3 on the season and moved up a spot to #2. Muskingum College (New Concord, OH), with its 32-6 record, slipped to #3. One of Muskingum's six losses came at the hands of the Foresters on March 10th by a score of 1-0.

Only two other schools from the Great Lakes Region made the rankings, with Lake Forest listed the highest of the three. Benedictine University, who the Foresters swept in a doubleheader last Thursday (April 25th), is at #18 and Illinois Wesleyan University is at #23.

Lake Forest also finds itself among the nation's best in a number of statistical categories. Entering this week, the Foresters' 1.24 earned run average was the 21st-lowest in the country and their .959 fielding percentage was 22nd-best. Individually, sophomore Nancy Findeisen (Beecher, IL/ Beecher), who recorded the shutout of Muskingum in her first appearance of the season, had the 15th-best ERA at 0.87. On Tuesday (April 30th), the sophomore lowered it to 0.80 by allowing no earned runs in eight innings in a 2-1 victory over Knox College that clinched Lake Forest's second consecutive Midwest Conference South Division Championship. Findeisen's 7.6 strikeouts per nine innings was the 22nd-highest total in the nation.

The winner of this weekend's (May 3-4th) MWC Championship Tournament, hosted by Lake Forest College, will receive the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Championship Tourney. The NCAA Great Lakes Regional Tournament will take place the following weekend (May 10-12th) at a site yet to be determined. The National Tournament will take place from May 16th to the 20th in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.

USA Today/National Fastpitch Coaches Association Top 25