NATIONAL RANKINGS

The honors continue to pile up for the Capital University women's soccer team, as they add three separate final national rankings to the list of their historical 2013 season.

The Crusaders earned the No. 8 ranking in the NSCAA/Continental Tire NCAA National Rankings, No. 9 on D3Soccer.com and No. 19 in the final Bennett Rankings.

"I could not be more proud of the fact that this team did things no one thought possible this year," said head coach Chris Kouns. "Our society values flash and high profile players, and that was not what our team was all about. We had a lot of good players who were willing to fight and work for each other and as a result, their collective efforts helped them achieve heights few would have imagined possible for Capital women's soccer."

D3Soccer.com rankings are based off of weekly votes coming from a panel of coaches, Sports Information Directors and media members from across the country.

In that specific poll, Capital topped Thomas More (Ky.) and the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, both of which were defeated by the Crusaders in the NCAA Tournament.

As far as the NSCAA National Ranking, that specific poll is made up of nominated teams by region, in Capital's case the Great Lakes Region, with a winning percentage of .750 and above, which is then voted on by coaches within the region and across the nation.

"In terms the culture of our program, this Top 10 National Ranking is the validation that we hoped for," Kouns said. "The culture we are developing values the process of a team striving to maximize their potential.  It focuses on the journey, not the destination, and the belief that if we do the right things in the classroom, on the soccer field and in life we will be rewarded, and we have been."a

The Crusaders also topped Thomas More and Wisconsin-Whitewater in that poll as well.

The Bennett rankings are calculated on factors such as: where games were played, who won, what ranking the opponent had and goal differential. 

"One of the greatest compliments I've received about our total team effort this year came from the gentleman in charge of the Bennett Ranking system," Kouns said. "He told me Capital had been the greatest bug in his system all year long because Bennett Ranking is based solely on statistics and logarithms." 

Capital also topped Wisconsin-Whitewater in that final poll.

"In a logical world, we should not have been where we were and statistically should not have done what we did," Kouns said. But, those things don't tell the story of a team, people do, and we had a story to tell."

Overall, Capital (19-5-2 overall) earned all three national rankings after capping off a historic season in the program's first-ever appearance in the NCAA Division III National Semifinals.