The Northwestern Wildcats swept the first-place votes for a third consecutive week and the same 20 schools remained in the rankings from last week’s poll, giving the ALC a third straight week with six schools in the top-20. The ACC maintained four schools in the top-10 while the ALC, Ivy League and Big East both claim two schools each in the upper half of the poll. Northwestern continues to lead the ALC at No. 1 while Florida remains in the top-five at No. 5. Ohio State starts off the second half of the poll at No. 11, followed immediately by Penn State at No. 12. Vanderbilt moves to No. 15 and Johns Hopkins moves to No. 19. The ACC’s five schools include four in the top-seven, as Maryland at No. 3 is followed by North Carolina at No. 4; Duke just edges Virginia at No. 6. Boston College remains at No. 20 for a second straight week. The Big East claims four schools in the poll, starting with No. 2 Syracuse; Notre Dame stays in the top-10 at No. 9. Loyola jumps to No. 13, just ahead of No. 14 Georgetown. The Ivy League also has four schools in the poll; Penn holds at No. 8 while Dartmouth moves into the top-10 at No. 10. Cornell rises to No. 16 while Princeton moves to No. 18. Massachusetts, from the Atlantic-10, rises two spots to No. 17. On Thursday, a game featuring the two top-10 teams in the Big East takes place in Indiana at No. 9 Notre Dame hosts No. 2 Syracuse. On Friday the conference matchups continue as No. 1 Northwestern travels to face No. 12 Penn State. Saturday brings four games between ranked teams; all are conference contests. A top-five showdown takes place in the ACC as No. 4 UNC hosts No. 3 Maryland; also in the ACC, No. 6 Duke hosts No. 20 Boston College. No. 10 Dartmouth travels to face No. 16 Cornell in the Ivy League while No. 19 Johns Hopkins welcomes No. 5 Florida in an ALC game. On Sunday, the ALC sees No. 15 Vanderbilt hosting No. 11 Ohio State while top-ranked Northwestern takes on No. 8 Penn in Pennsylvania.
| Record | Votes (1st Pl) | Previous | |
| 1. Northwestern | 10-0 | 400 (20) | 1 |
| 2. Syracuse | 6-2 | 375 | 2 |
| 3. Maryland | 11-2 | 350 | 3 |
| 4. North Carolina | 12-1 | 340 | 5 |
| 5. Florida | 12-2 | 335 | 4 |
| 6. Duke | 8-5 | 284 | 7 |
| 7. Virginia | 8-4 | 259 | 9 |
| 8. Pennsylvania | 6-3 | 249 | 8 |
| 9. Notre Dame | 8-1 | 229 | 6 |
| 10. Dartmouth | 7-1 | 201 | 11 |
| 11. Ohio State | 8-3 | 183 | 14 |
| 12. Penn State | 8-3 | 180 | 10 |
| 13. Loyola | 7-3 | 171 | 15 |
| 14. Georgetown | 6-4 | 147 | 13 |
| 15. Vanderbilt | 6-4 | 134 | 12 |
| 16. Cornell | 7-2 | 109 | 18 |
| 17. Massachusetts | 11-1 | 76 | 19 |
| 18. Princeton | 4-4 | 75 | 16 |
| 19. Johns Hopkins | 7-3 | 57 | 17 |
| 20. Boston College | 5-6 | 18 | 20 |
Also receiving votes: James Madison, Towson.
This is the sixth regular-season IWLCA poll of the 2012 season; the next poll will be released on April 10.
Tag(s): 2012