SPOKANE, Wash.- Whitworth University moved up seven spots this week to crack the top ten at 8th place in the NSCAA/adidas® NCAA Men's Division III National Poll of September 9, 2008.

Click here for the entire poll.

The Pirates are 3-0-1 after winning 6-1 over Cal Lutheran, the defending co-champion of the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletics Conference last Saturday, then tying 2-2 at UC Santa Cruz on Monday. UCSC has made five consecutive NCAA Division III tournament appearances.

Caleb Barnhill (Sr., F, Sultan, Wash.) leads the Northwest Conference so far this season with five goals scored. He scored three of the goals over the weekend in California.

Whitworth will now host Wisconsin-Whitewater on Thursday at 4:00 p.m. to conclude the non-conference games on the 2008 schedule. Playing perhaps the toughest non-conference schedule in the country, the Pirates take on their third opponent this season that competed in the 2007 NCAA Division III national tournament. Wisconsin-Whitewater is 2-0-1 after a 4-0 win over Lakeland College last week.