Pat Reardon's squad is 41-6 overall, the best record in school history. The Eagles have won four-straight Heart of America Athletic Conference (HAAC) regular-season championships and three-straight HAAC Championship Series titles. The Eagles enter the 2014 NAIA Softball National Championship Opening Round on a nine-game win streak and will make their second-straight appearance in the event.
Central Methodist is led by four-time reigning HAAC Pitcher of the Year�Aubrey Utley�and HAAC Player of the Year Michele Rupard. Utley is 24-1 this season and owns the school's all-time records for wins and strikeouts. Rupard leads the team with a .408 batting average and has set a single-season school record drawing 38 walks.�
The Eagles are 2-1 to date against current Top 25 competition, having defeated Auburn Montgomery (Ala.) and William Woods (Mo.) but lost to Spring Hill (Ala.).
Concordia (Calif.) sits atop the poll for the 18th-straight time.
Movement this week was minimal with no team shifting either direction more than one position. Overall, 12 programs locked down their spot from last week.
Fourteen of 21 conferences, independents and unaffiliated groups are represented this week's poll. The SSAC places the most teams among the Top 25 with five: No., 3 Auburn Montgomery, No. 7 Spring Hill, No. 10 (tie) William Carey (Miss.), No. 15 Belhaven (Miss.) and No. 21 Brenau (Ga.). Both the A.I.I. and the Sooner Athletic Conference claim a trio of ranked programs. The Eagles are the lone HAAC team in the poll.
The poll was voted upon by a panel of head coaches representing each of the conferences /independent /unaffiliated groupings. The 2014 Postseason Top 25 will be announced on June 4.
The 40 Softball National Championship Opening Round qualifiers will be announced today at 5 p.m. CDT. The pairings for the opening round tournament will be announced with a video selection show at 7 p.m. on NAIA.org.
Notes:�(all information dating back to 2000)�No. 25 Kansas Wesleyan becomes the 35th different team to be ranked this season -- of those 35 teams, 16 of them have been ranked in every poll... No. 16 Oklahoma City maintains the most wins in the NAIA with 49, No. 1 Concordia (Calif.) and No. 6 St. Gregory's (Okla.) are next with 48... With all first-place votes, No. 1 Concordia (Calif.) has now been the unanimous pick in three polls this year, including the last two... The 18-straight No. 1 rankings for Concordia is the longest stretch for any program since former member California Baptist rattled through 24-consecutive polls from 2009-11 No. 2 LSU Alexandria (La.) has been ranked among the top five since vaulting into the poll in the first regular-season edition on March 18... Concordia has now held the No. 1 position in 22 of the last 24 polls overall dating back to the 2012 seasonOklahoma City leads all active schools with 100-straight rankings, falling no lower than 18th during that stretch, which dates back to start of 2004 season; No. 10 (tie) William Carey (Miss.) is second with 63-consecutive mentions and Concordia is right behind at 54-straight polls Since 2000, 11 teams have topped the poll with former member California Baptist leading the way with 46 all-time No. 1 appearances, followed by Concordia with 24, Oklahoma City with 20, former member Simon Fraser (B.C.) with 18, Thomas (Ga.) with 13, Mobile (Ala.) with five, former member Lubbock Christian (Texas) with four, Cal State San Marcos with two and Oklahoma Baptist with two -- Oregon Tech and former member Shorter (Ga.) each have one.
2014 NAIA Softball Coaches' Top 25 Poll FINAL (May 6)
| RANK | LAST WEEK | SCHOOL (1ST PLACE VOTES) | 2014 RECORD | TOTAL POINTS |
| 1 | 1 | Concordia (Calif.) (20) | 48-5 | 560 |
| 2 | 3 | LSU Alexandria | 32-3 | 534 |
| 3 | 2 | Auburn Montgomery (Ala.) | 38-6 | 522 |
| 4 | 4 | Olivet Nazarene (Ill.) | 46-3-1 | 516 |
| 5 | 5 | Cal State San Marcos | 38-7-1 | 477 |
| 6 | 6 | St. Gregory's (Okla.) | 48-9 | 459 |
| 7 | 7 | Spring Hill (Ala.) | 40-12 | 448 |
| 8 | 8 | Saint Xavier (Ill.) | 45-7-1 | 438 |
| 9 | 10 | Reinhardt (Ga.) | 41-8 | 410 |
| T10 | 11 | William Carey (Miss.) | 44-10 | 390 |
| T10 | 9 | Lindsey Wilson (Ky.) | 45-9 | 390 |
| 12 | 12 | Biola (Calif.) | 34-12 | 361 |
| 13 | 13 | Oklahoma Baptist | 43-15 | 340 |
| 14 | 14 | Central Methodist (Mo.) | 41-6 | 326 |
| 15 | 15 | Belhaven (Miss.) | 41-15 | 305 |
| 16 | T17 | Oklahoma City | 49-11 | 279 |
| 17 | 16 | Simpson (Calif.) | 35-6 | 277 |
| 18 | T17 | Oregon Tech | 33-12 | 241 |
| 19 | 20 | William Woods (Mo.) | 39-15 | 236 |
| 20 | 19 | Houston-Victoria (Texas) | 33-13 | 211 |
| 21 | 21 | Brenau (Ga.) | 34-13 | 192 |
| 22 | 22 | Davenport (Mich.) | 36-8 | 176 |
| 23 | 24 | Concordia (Ore.) | 33-15 | 146 |
| 24 | RV | USC Beaufort (S.C.) | 39-11 | 99 |
| 25 | RV | Kansas Wesleyan | 38-7 | 68 |
