By Zaji Lieberman

The Ohio Northern men's soccer team is ranked No. 9 in the third weekly 2012 Continental Tire/NSCAA Men's Division III poll and is No. 8 in the third weekly D3soccer.com poll on Tuesday.

ONU has now been nationally ranked in four of the past five seasons.

In the NSCAA poll, the Polar Bears (7-1-0) were ranked No. 12 in the second poll last week, were ranked No. 4 in the first weekly poll and were ranked No. 12 in the 2012 preseason poll and were No. 11 in the final 2011 NSCAA poll.

Trinity (Tex.) is ranked No. 1, St. Lawrence (N.Y.) is second and Amherst (Mass.) is third.

In the D3soccer.com poll, Ohio Northern received 391 points and were ranked No. 7 in last week's poll.

Saint Lawrence (N.Y.) is ranked No. 1, Trinity (Tex.) is second and Loras (Iowa) is third.

Last week, Northern had three victories, defeating Wittenberg 5-0, Franklin (Ind.) 3-1 and Transylvania (Ky.) 2-0.

The Polar Bears will return to action Wednesday with a 7 pm match against No. 21 Ohio Wesleyan.

NSCAA Division III Men's Poll - #3
Sept. 18, 2012

Rank School 2012 Record Last Week
1. Trinity (Tex.) 6-0-1 1
2. Saint Lawrence (N.Y.) 6-0-0 2
3. Amherst (Mass.)
3-0-0 3
4. Loras (Iowa)
7-0-1 4
5. Messiah (Pa.) 5-0-1 9
6. Montclair State (N.J.) 6-0-0 12
7. Carnegie Mellon (Pa.)
5-1-0 7
8. Wheaton (Ill.) 5-1-0 15
9. Ohio Northern 7-1-0 12
  Washington (Mo.) 4-0-1 18
11. Whitworth (Calif.) 5-0-1 16
12. Brandeis (Mass.) 7-0-0 20
13. Dickinson (Pa.) 6-0-0 21
14. New York University 6-0-0 22
  Rutgers-Camden (N.J.) 5-1-0 6
16. Wisconsin-Whitewater 3-1-1 11
17. Berry (Ga.) 6-0-0 NR
18. Swarthmore (Pa.) 5-0-0 NR
19. Nazareth (Pa.) 5-0-0 RV
20 Olivet (Mich.) 6-0-1 NR
21. Baldwin-Wallace 5-1-0 NR
22. Tufts (Mass.) 3-0-0 NR
23. Carleton  (Wis.) 5-1-0 NR
24. Puget Sound (Wash.) 5-1-1 NR
25. Williams (Mass.) 4-0-0 NR
Others Receiving Votes: Ohio Wesleyan, Franklin & Marshall (Pa.), Dominican (Ill.) and York (Pa.)

D3soccer.com Men's Poll - #3
Sept. 18, 2012

Rank School (1st Pl. Votes) 2012 Record Pts.  Last Week
1. Saint Lawrence (N.Y.) (16) 6-0-0 598 2
2. Trinity (Tex.) (6) 6-0-1 568 1
3. Loras (Iowa) (2) 7-0-1 528 3
4. Messiah (Pa.) (1) 5-0-1 524 5
5. Montclair State (N.J.) 6-0-0 481 10
6. Amherst (Mass.) 3-0-0 449 4
7. Brandeis (Mass.) 7-0-0 395 12
8. Ohio Northern 7-1-0 391 12
9. Carnegie Mellon (Pa.) 5-1-0 378 15
10.   New York University 6-0-0 358 17
11. Whitworth (Calif.) 5-0-1 303 18
12. Rutgers-Camden (N.J.) 5-1-0 291 8
13. Franklin and Marshall 5-1-0 288 6
14. Swarthmore (Pa.) 5-0-0 277 -
15. York (Pa.) 5-1-1 234 9
16. Wheaton (Ill.) 5-1-0 219 22
17. Susquehanna (Pa.) 6-1-0 188 14
18. Washington University 4-0-1 186 25
19. DePauw (Ind.) 5-0-2 142 16
20 Babson (Mass.) 5-1-1 127 11
21. Ohio Wesleyan 4-1-1 126 21
22. Williams (Mass.) 4-0-0 103 -
23. Tufts (Mass.) 3-0-0 100 -
24. Plattsburgh State (N.Y.) 7-0-0 97 -
25. Salisbury (N.J.) 5-1-1 90 19
Others Receiving Votes: Rochester (N.Y.) 88, Dickinson (Pa.) 86, Carthage (Wis.) 49, UW-Whitewater 40, Christopher Newport (Virg.) 39, Baldwin-Wallace 34, Illinois Wesleyan 32, Olivet (Mich.) 31, Nazareth (Pa.) 27, Wesleyan (Conn.) 27, Hiram 26, Eastern Connecticut 25, Stevens (N.J.) 20, Frostburg State (N.Y.) 19, Gustavus Adolphus (Minn.) 18, Medaille (Pa.) 15, Dominican (Ill.) 14, Bowdoin (Maine) 13, Hobart (N.Y.) 13, Puget Sound (Calif.) 11, Chicago 10, Rutgers-Newark (N.J.) 8, UW-Platteville 8, UC Santa Cruz 7, Hope (Mich.) 5, Carleton (Wis.) 4, Redlands (Calif.) 4, Augsburg (Minn.) 3, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (Calif.) 3, Lebanon Valley (Penn.) 2, Luther (Iowa) 2, Bridgewater (Va.) 1, Oglethorpe (Ga.) 1