The National, 10/11/12: Gothlaw's Bane.

WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL
Apparently, Texas can beat K-State at something, as the ninth-ranked Lady Longhorns swept the Lady Cats at Bramlage Saturday night. The second set was epic, though, with Texas pulling out a 30-28 win. This was K-State's only match of the week, so they're now 16-2; the loss did not affect either team's ranking, as the Lady Cats remain at #14 (though San Diego jumped K-State from 15th to 13th) and 13-3 Texas remains ninth.

Kansas, who took a 3-2 series from Oklahoma last night after beating Baylor 3-2 on Saturday, has the best actual overall record in the league at 17-2 and are ranked 21st; Iowa State, 3-1 winners over Texas Tech Saturday, swept West Virginia last night and are 23rd despite a modest 10-6 record. Oklahoma swept TCU Saturday before last night's loss to the Jayhawks, and are receiving votes in the poll at 14-6.

Over the next week, Kansas visits the Lady Longhorns on Friday; the Lady Cats travel to TCU on Saturday (conflicting with our football game, alas). Wednesday night's action includes Oklahoma at Tech (airing on Fox Sports Channel), Iowa State at Texas (on some FSNs), and the Lady Cats visiting the vile Jayhawk scourge on Metro Sports.

There weren't many changes at all in the D-II situation from last week; Nebraska-Kearney won four matches in a week and are now 18-0 and still ranked first. Washburn, 16-1, is still fourth and Central Missouri now has the #7 slot all to themselves after pulling slightly away from West Texas A&M in the vote total. Truman State's still in there getting votes, and Missouri S&T has started to get a little attention down-ballot as well. Washington (MO), at 21-1, remains atop the D-III rankings.

CROSS COUNTRY
K-State was at rest this week, preparing for Saturday's Pre-National Invitational at Louisville. The big story of the past week was NYU's victory in the men's half of the Metro Championship, outrunning fifth-ranked Iona and #17 Columbia. It's a big story because NYU is a D-III school, though the Violets did pull off the feat in 2007 as well. The D-I rankings have not changed since last week's update, as this was basically an off week. The D-II rankings haven't changed much either; Missouri Southern slipped a notch to #11, Southwest Baptist jumped two to #22, Fort Hays fell five to #25, Northwest Missouri State's up three to #29, and Nebraska-Kearney dropped two to #31. As with last week, North Central (IL) is #1 in D-III, with Haverford second and Washington (MO) third.

As for the women, nothing happened in D-I this week; in D-II, Missouri Southern plunged nine spots to #26, Southwest Baptist jumped three to #22, Pittsburg State dropped two to #29, and #23 Northwest Missouri State fell out of the poll. There was a shuffle atop the D-III poll as Williams fell to third, with MIT and Johns Hopkins each moving up a spot to fill the void; Washington (MO) slid a spot to sixth.

MEN'S SOCCER
There was massive upheaval in the top ten this week. Maryland remains atop the poll, but #2 Connecticut fell to #6 after losing to Marquette, who are unbeaten, untied, and now ranked #4 (up from ninth). Third-ranked Georgetown plummeted to a tie for tenth with St. John's after losing to the tenth-ranked Fighting Irish... who moved up to seventh and then promptly got upset by Northwestern, who'd fallen out of the poll after being 22nd. #4 Cal-Santa Barbara? They got shut out by Cal State-Northridge, and fell to eighth. How about #5 New Mexico? Surely they... nope. They lost 1-0 at home to Air Force, and fell to ninth.

All of that left the door open for evil to return, as North Carolina jumped to the number two slot from sixth, followed by formerly seventh-ranked Akron. UCLA, up from eighth, rounds out the top five. Elon, Virginia Commonwealth (buoyed by a win over UNC-Charlotte which dropped the 49ers from 13th to 21st), and Alabama-Birmingham found their way into the poll this week, replacing Northwestern, Tulsa, and South Florida.

Holding onto the top spot in D-II is LIU-C.W. Post. #16 Rockhurst fell out of the top 25 after a loss to Southern Indiana, which helped Fort Hays State move up from 18th to 17th. William Jewell entered the poll at #21. In D-III, the top five are still the top five, though #5 Loras jumped #4 Carnegie-Mellon; Trinity (TX) remains atop the rankings.

WOMEN'S SOCCER
The top four remain unchanged; Florida State, Stanford, UCLA, Penn State. #5 Texas A&M took a dive to #9 after a loss to #20 Florida, though, and #7 Virginia lost to Wake Forest while #8 Central Florida dropped a match to SMU; both fell into the mid-teens. Oklahoma State fell out of the top 25, but they were replaced by the new #25, West Virginia; Baylor moved up from #25 to #20.

Mindboggling punishment for Saint Rose in the new D-II poll, after they lost in overtime to American International to end a 21-game unbeaten streak and then stumbled to a 1-1 draw with Saint Anselm; they fell all the way from the top spot in the poll to #17. West Florida moved up to replace the Golden Knights, but lost to #7 Armstrong Atlantic on Monday after the poll came out. That leaves the door open for #2 West Chester. Rockhurst slipped a spot to #13 while William Jewell jumped two to #18 -- the place formerly occupied by Truman State, who fell out of the top 25. Emory remains atop the D-III rankings, though the team they'd been tied with for the top spot the previous week, Trinity (TX), tumbled to a tie for ninth after a mid-week defeat. Washington (MO) has moved up from eighth to a tie for fifth.

FIELD HOCKEY
Pretty much nothing changed in D-I, as Syracuse remains number one followed by North Carolina. Connecticut and Princeton swapped places at 3-4, and Virginia now has sole possession of fifth place as Maryland slipped a few votes behind the Cavaliers. So when I said "pretty much nothing changed", I wasn't kidding. Shippensburg's the new #1 in D-II, moving up from second and swapping places with West Chester. Salisbury remains atop the D-III poll.

WATER POLO
The top 18 in the poll remain unchanged, and that's the end of my commentary on that matter. (I hope those 18 words didn't cause anyone undue strain.)

TONIGHT'S FOOTBALL
Western Kentucky at Troy at 6:30 on ESPNU, UTEP at Tulsa at 7pm on various FSNs, and Arizona State at Colorado at 8pm on ESPN. In D-II, Tuskegee visits Stillman at 6:30, and on CBS Sports Network #18 Wayne State (MI) travels to #17 Saginaw Valley State. Bridgewater visits Guilford in a D-III contest at 6:30.