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The chances of UC Irvine earning an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament just got significantly better.
The Anteaters jumped three spots to No. 5 in the newest RPI rankings that the NCAA released on Monday.
The RPI is one of the criteria categories the selection committee uses to determine the NCAA Tournament field. A team’s RPI ranking is calculated using a mathematical formula that includes its winning percentage, strength of schedule and opponents’ strength of schedule.
UC Irvine swept a two-match series against No. 3/3 UC Santa Barbara during the weekend to finish the regular season in third place in the Big West. These two victories propelled UC Irvine past other possible at-large bid contenders UCLA and USC in the RPI rankings.
Despite the two losses, UC Santa Barbara remains one spot ahead of UC Irvine in the RPI rankings.
Long Beach State moved to No. 1 in the rankings following a two-match series sweep against Hawai’i. The Rainbow Warriors dropped to No. 2 after suffering their first losses of the season.
This is the penultimate RPI rankings before Section Sunday. The next rankings will be released on Sunday and used by the selection committee to determine the NCAA Tournament field.
RPI rankings (April 15)
1. Long Beach State — .6497
2. Hawai’i — .6488
3. Pepperdine — .6241
4. UC Santa Barbara — .5953
5. UC Irvine — .5918
6. USC — .5883
7. UCLA — .5866
8. Lewis — .5785
9. Loyola — .5641
10. Stanford — .5615
11. BYU — .5588
12. Barton — .5494
13. CSUN — .5466
14. King — .5372
15. Grand Canyon — .5229
16. Lincoln Memorial — .5143
17. Ball State — .5102
18. Princeton — .5066
19. McKendree — .5043
20. George Mason — .5030
21. Purdue Fort Wayne — .5020
22. Penn State — .4925
23. Belmont Abbey — .4891
24. Concordia-Irvine — .4870
25. North Greenville — .4846
26. UC San Diego — .4753
27. Ohio State — .4707
28. St. Francis — .4664
29. Mount Olive — .4624
30. Lindenwood — .4440
31. Limestone — .4436
32. NJIT — .4358
33. Queens — .4349
34. Harvard — .4207
35. Erskine — .4190
36. Quincy — .4185
37. Emmanuel — .4067
38. Coker — .3950
39. Charleston — .3737
40. Sacred Heart — .3668
41. Lees-McRae — .3471
42. Daemen — .3239
43. Alderson Broaddus — .2546