A pair of Pac-10 victories keep undefeated Stanford #1 in this week’s TopDrawerSoccer.com Tournament 64 Women’s National Ranking.

Paul Ratcliffe’s Stanford squad  earned a pair of 3-0 wins on the road at Arizona and Arizona State to drive their record to 15-0-2 overall and 6-0-0 in the Pac- 10. Portland moves up to #2 in the ranking and North Carolina drops to #3 after the Tar Heels’ home loss to Maryland on Sunday.

The Tournament 64 ranking is a running attempt to project the postseason NCAA Tournament field, including the automatic conference qualifiers and the at-large selections.

This week’s ranking will show the effects of the initial RPI being released. The index is an important tool in the consideration of the NCAA

Tournament committee when selecting its field. As you follow our ranking you should bear in mind the following:

1. I don’t like the RPI ranking that much. It attempts to factor in strength of schedule which is a good thing, but it also tends to insist on itself and thus can perpetuate myths about who/what is actually strong.
2. The instructions given to the committee give it leeway in determining the at-large field. It is not solely bound to the RPI, but too often in the past it has selected as if the RPI is the only criteria.

Meanwhile, Denver’s Kaitlin Bast has been named the TopDrawerSoccer.com Player of the Week. Bast turned in a pair of two-goal outings as the Pioneers won twice and clinched the regular season title of the Sun Belt Conference. With the honor, Bast headlines the TopDrawerSoccer.com Team of the Week, which is selected based on the study of match reports from all DI programs over the week.

The full Women’s Team of the Week for October 18-24 is as follows:

GK: Tara Campbell, Duke
D: Jessica Tsao, Portland
D: Brittiny Rhoades, South Carolina
D: Brittany Galindo, Oregon State
M: Taylor Travis, Florida
M: Rachel Shipley, Texas A&M(w)
F: Laura Weinberg, Duke
F:  Kaitlin Bast, Denver
F: CoCo Goodson, UC Irvine
F: Sade Ayinde, Maryland
F: Lindsay Taylor, Stanford

Player of the Week: Kaitlin Bast, Denver