The University of Houston-Victoria Jaguars remained at No. 21, as the top-four teams remained intact in the final NAIA Softball Coaches' Top 25 Poll released Tuesday.
The Jaguars (33-15) will play host to the Association of Independent Institutions Conference Tournament this Thursday through Saturday. Among the six teams in the field in the tournament will be No. 5 Cal State-San Marcos and 14th-ranked Simon Fraser. CSSM moved up two spots from a week ago from seventh to fifth, while SFU fell three spots from 11th to 14th.
California Baptist, Lee University, Lubbock Christian and Concordia University (Ore.) remained the top four teams in the nation. Fifth-ranked Belhaven fell to No. 6 and Point Loma Nazarene went from sixth to No. 7.
Fourteen conferences and unaffiliated groupings are represented in the poll. The Southern States Athletic Conference leads all leagues with four ranked teams: Lee, Shorter, Brenau (Ga.) and Auburn Montgomery (Ala.). Three conferences, the GSAC, Association of Independent Institutions and the unaffiliated grouping of the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference and the Sunrise Conference, each have three ranked squads.
The poll was voted upon by a panel of head coaches representing each of the conferences.
Qualifiers for the NAIA Softball National Championship in Decatur, Ala., May 20 - 26, will be released May 10, followed by the pool-play schedule May 11.
