The Northwestern Wildcats increased their stranglehold on the No. 1 position, sweeping all 20 first-place votes for the second consecutive week. The same 20 schools remain in the rankings from Week 4; the American Lacrosse Conference maintains its lead with six schools in the top-20 while the ACC claims five schools and the Big East and Ivy League both have four institutions ranked. The ALC stretches its record with six ranked schools; the conference is led by No. 1 Northwestern and boasts three schools in the top 10 with Florida rising to No. 4 and Penn State rounding out the top half of the poll at No. 10. Vanderbilt moves to No. 12; Ohio State rises to No. 14 and Johns Hopkins jumps three spots to land at No. 17. The ACC’s five schools are led by No. 3 Maryland; North Carolina remains in the top-five at No. 5. Duke (No. 7) and Virginia (No. 9) both sit in the top-10 while Boston College remains ranked, landing at No. 20. The Big East has four schools in the top-20, starting with No. 2 Syracuse; Notre Dame at No. 6 also sits in the top-10. Georgetown holds at No. 13 while Loyola moves up to No. 15. The Ivy League’s four schools are led by No. 8 Penn while Dartmouth starts off the second half of the poll at No. 11. Princeton sits at No. 14 and Cornell holds steady at No. 18. Massachusetts represents the Atlantic-10 and sits at No. 19. The week features eight games with two ranked teams; Friday kicks off the weekend with two top-10 match-ups. No. 3 Maryland travels to face No. 8 Penn and No. 5 UNC hosts local rival and seventh-ranked Duke. On Saturday, all three games are conference rivalries as well as top-20 games. In the ALC, top-ranked Northwestern faces No. 14 Ohio State in Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Mass. No. 16 Princeton takes on No. 18 Cornell in an Ivy League game, and No. 9 Virginia hosts No. 20 Boston College in an ACC tilt. On Sunday, three more top-20 conference games take place. No. 6 Notre Dame is at No. 15 Loyola for a Big East game, while the ALC has two contests. No. 4 Florida welcomes No. 10 Penn State and No. 12 Vanderbilt takes on No. 17 Johns Hopkins in Tennessee. 

Also receiving votes: James Madison, Towson.
This is the fifth regular-season IWLCA poll of the 2012 season; the next poll will be released on April 3.