Two big moves occurred in the Women DI College Top 20, and they’re a reflection of the build-up to spring playoffs. Same thing happened in the fall, when post-season teams started peaking and idleness hurt certain teams’ standings.

Quinnipiac has done nothing “wrong” to warrant a drop in ranking, but two teams below the Bobcats have exerted enough pressure to earn promotions. The Bobcats spent last Saturday promoting The Austin Hill Project, welcoming supporters to a charity match against Harvard and raising awareness to cystic fibrosis and how the illness has affected the former rugby player (read more). This weekend, Quinnipiac will compete in the Varsity 7s tournament, but that’s all the Connecticut side has for the spring.

Meanwhile, Stanford and Central Washington are starting to peak. The duo were the clear leaders during the Pacific Mountain playoffs, and more importantly, the solid competition from Washington State and UC Davis helped the victors refine their respective games under pressure. The Cougars impressed in particular, so they bumped up from the #20 spot (read more).

As for BYU, the team is heavily favored to win the Southwest regional this weekend and advance to the spring Final Four, but we’re looking at the previous two weeks of play, and the Cougars have been idle. Stanford and Central Washington played some of its toughest competition in that time period. (Stay tuned for DI and DII previews of the regional playoffs)

The rest of the Top 10 remained unchanged. Longtime chart-topper Penn State played its first games on home soil this year, beating DI women’s club NOVA 83-5 and DII college IUP 76-0. Against NOVA, Hope Rogers, Taylah Pipkin, Beth Rose and Gabby Cantorna had multi-try games, while Kyla Chipman and Elizabeth Cairns also scored tries. Cantorna and Lauren Shissler split the kicking duties. The Nittany Lions will fit in some 7s the next two weekends before ramping back up for the 15s championship on May 9.

Norwich has been busy on the 7s pitch, bagging the third of its 2015 7s titles last weekend. Freshman Ilona Maher and senior captain Emily Oor scored five tries apiece at the Scott Milley tournament, helping the Cadets to a 51-0 all-time record in 7s (read more).

West Chester won the Mason Dixon conference, battling itself and UVA to a 35-20 semifinal win before dismantling North Carolina 58-5 in the title match (read more). We were tempted to swap UNC with Lindenwood in the rankings but considered the competition. The Tar Heels’ 53-point loss was surprising, but the differential is reflected in the rankings distance between UNC and West Chester. Perhaps a little more space should be placed between UNC and UVA, but we couldn’t justify advancing the Lions up three places, even though Lindenwood won the Nebraska 7s in convincing, unscored-upon fashion. LU heads to the Penn State 7s this weekend, so some proper comparisons will be made.

Throughout the rest of the ranking, Northern Iowa, Brown and New Mexico all slipped a spot due to idleness, a status that changes this weekend. And Central Florida rejoined the ranking after playing Life to a 18-10 loss during the SIRC final (read more). UCF replaced UC San Diego, which lost 45-15 to UC Davis during the Pacific Mountain Conference playoffs and then rallied with a 24-14 win over unranked Chico State.

The Top 20 will be updated after regional playoffs, and watch for the DII and high school rankings this week.