BRISTOL, R.I. – The Roger Williams University Women's Soccer team rose to number-five in region II in the latest United Soccer Coaches (USC) regional poll it was announced on Tuesday. This marks the fifth consecutive week RWU has been ranked in the regional poll as they rose three spots from a week ago.
 
"We had bounced back week this week," said Head Coach Tim Moody. "The team knew what they needed to do if they wanted to stay in the conversation. If you play other schools in the rankings it helps if you can get a positive result and we did that on Saturday against the University of New England."
 
At the time of the poll, the Hawks stood with a 9-4-0 record and were coming off a much needed 2-0-0 week. After they took care of UMass-Dartmouth, 3-0, on Thursday, the team claimed a huge, come-from-behind victory, 3-1, over the University of New England, who was ranked third in the region at the time.
 
"Even though we had won convincingly during this week against UMD, our conference game was worth more for many reasons," Moody said. "The UNE game really just came at the right time for us. We wanted to win and get three points, get back to the top in the conference. We did not start the last couple of games too well but turned the score around. We fully deserved our comeback win against the number-three ranked team in the region."
 
RWU will look to ride their current momentum into this week. They already took care of Fitchburg State on Monday and will prepare to battle Nichols on Wednesday before hosting Western New England on Saturday afternoon.
 
"Winning both games this week puts us in a better place and sends a message to everyone else in our region," Moody added. "On our day, we can compete and beat the best teams. Our squad is filled with players that want to be successful and maximize their potential."
 
So far this season, Roger Williams has been dangerous on both sided of the ball. Offensively, they have scored 3.14 goals per game, the most in the CCC and 33^rd most in all of Division III Women's Soccer. Defensively, the Hawks rank sixth in the CCC allowing 1.21 goals per game.
 
"We have scored lots of goals over the past six weeks, however it is not just one player, we are getting goals from all over the pitch," Moody explained. "We are able to set up and play different ways, more importantly, we never give up and have shown we can come back from behind now. We want to win every game we play, and if there is time on the clock we will continue to attack, look to score, and not just settle for a draw. If we do those things, we will position ourselves well for wins.
 
REGION II - POLL 5 - OCTOBER 12, 2021
Rank  School                                                           Prev    W-L-T
1        Massachusetts Institute of Technology              1      13-0-1
2        Wheaton College (Mass.)                                  5        7-3-2
3        Brandeis University                                            2        5-3-2
4        Lesley University                                                4        6-3-1
5        Roger Williams University                                  8        9-4-0
6        University Of New England                                3        7-4-1
7        Endicott College                                                 6        5-3-2
8        Clark University                                                 NR      7-4-0