It’s Denver’s turn (again) at No. 1.

The Pioneers have the benefit of winning six in a row since March 19. Inertia helps, but so does the fact everyone in the country has at least two losses entering May. All but five (Albany, Denver, Hofstra, Penn State and Syracuse) have stumbled three or more times.

Denver won its five Big East contests by an average of 7.8 goals and all by at least five scores, and it will be the favorite in the league tournament at Providence this weekend. The presence of faceoff ace Trevor Baptiste remains a major part of the Pioneers’ equation for dominance.

Nonetheless, Maryland warranted some consideration for a return to the top spot this week. The Terrapins won an outright Big Ten regular season title with their 12-5 rout of Johns Hopkins, and their only defeat in their last seven outings was an overtime misstep at Ohio State when they were without injured attackman Colin Heacock.

Also considered: Air Force, Binghamton, Boston University, Monmouth, Penn, Virginia

Nike/US Lacrosse Rankings

Division I Men | Division I Women
Division II Men | Division II Women
Division III Men | Division III Women

Hot

North Carolina (+6)

All of the sudden, there’s something about the postseason that suits North Carolina quite well. The Tar Heels won last year’s NCAA tournament as an unseeded team, and this year entered the ACC tournament needing a pair of victories to have any chance of defending their national championship.

North Carolina got both of those games, avenging tight losses to Syracuse and Notre Dame this weekend. The Tar Heels would have finished with a losing record with a stumble in the ACC tournament. Instead, they have a strong shot at landing a first-round home game in the NCAAs.

Rutgers (+5)

The Scarlet Knights did exactly what they needed to, earning a 12-11 victory over Ohio State to close out their regular season. Rutgers won’t play in this week’s Big Ten tournament, but a resume with a glitzy, high-end victory (Ohio State), a decent secondary victory (Army) and solid enough RPI and strength of schedule numbers could get Brian Brecht’s program its first NCAA bid in 13 years.

Jeff George and Kieran Mullins both had hat tricks for the Scarlet Knights, who got multi-point games from all six of their offensive starters. They’re still vulnerable to chaos this week, but it looks like this Selection Sunday will go better for Rutgers than last year’s did.

NOT

Yale (-5)

The Bulldogs head into the Ivy League tournament with back-to-back one-goal losses, the latest at Harvard. In some ways, it isn’t massively surprising; the Crimson wasn’t extending its season into May, and a game against its biggest rival qualified as its Super Bowl.

Still, the last two Saturdays create a few questions about Yale. The Albany setback effectively ended the Bulldogs’ hopes for an NCAA at-large bid. This one creates concern about vulnerability in the Ivy tournament. Nonetheless, it’s still a tough team — maybe not as good as the Yale outfits of the last several seasons, but still probably the favorite this weekend on its own field.

Princeton (-5)

What we’ve learned about Princeton this season: Its offense is tremendous and its defense is spotty. The Tigers have reached double figures all but once this year, but have yielded at least 15 goals on four occasions.

All of those were losses, and the latest was an 18-17 defeat at Cornell. There’s a similar element to Yale at play here since the Big Red didn’t qualify for the Ivy tournament and could do little more than spoil their longtime league rival’s at-large chances. Mission accomplished for Cornell, which got a ridiculous five goals and seven assists from attackman Jeff Teat to win a matchup of star freshmen against Princeton’s Michael Sowers (who had a nifty four-goal, three-assist day of his own).

NEW

Brown (No. 20)

Let’s not overreact too much to a 20-5 drubbing of Dartmouth. Instead, look at how the Bears have fared since a 1-3 start that largely sent them off the radar for the rest of the season besides the occasional look-in at how defending Tewaaraton winner Dylan Molloy is faring as a senior. He has 38 goals and 25 assists, so not too shabby.

Brown has won eight of its last 10, and heads into an Ivy League tournament that looks wide open after Yale and Princeton stumbled a couple times in April. The Bears were not competitive with either of those teams in the regular season, but they could be a wild card in New Haven. At the very least, their rematch with Princeton has “first to 20 wins” written all over it.

OUT

Virginia (previously No. 20)

The first year of the Lars Tiffany era is complete in Charlottesville, with the Cavaliers registering a one-game improvement over last year. Yet while the first half of the season was defined by a series of close games (including one-goal losses to Penn, Syracuse, Notre Dame and Johns Hopkins), the last few weeks were included some blowout losses.

Virginia was overwhelmed early by North Carolina and its faceoff ace, Stephen Kelly. It was drilled (as usual) against Duke. And then it went from losing by a goal on the road against Penn to falling 17-11 to the Quakers on a neutral field.

It’s a sobering finish for a team that will miss the NCAA tournament for the third time in five years and hasn’t advanced in May since 2012. The Virginia team of the first two months was intriguing, but it certainly closed out 2017 with a thud.