Fresno City College is now the No. 1 women’s soccer team in the National Soccer Coaches Association of America third division in the entire nation.

The latest rankings, released on Sept. 22, has Fresno on top, followed by Cerritos College, Brookdale Community, Herkimer County Community and Oxford College of Emory University as the top five.

The team’s overall record this season is 8-0-3, putting them ahead of the next team, Cerritos, who has a 7-0-2 record.

Fresno was coming off of a remarkable stretch of going 5-1-0. The most notable match was the Rams’ victory against Consumnes River, blowing them out 4-1.

Last season, the Rams finished third in the state after a loss in the Final Four to Cerritos College. Sophomore forward, Melody Harris, thinks that experience has helped the team’s play.

“It is motivating to think we could do the same thing we did last year, but we just need to step it up and make it better,” Harris said. “Knowing that feeling, losing in the final game when we were that close, it definitely gives us a little bit more motivation to do the best we can.”

Head coach Oliver Germond attributes much of his team’s successes on work ethic and team culture. “So far we have been successful,” Germond said. “I think people are gradually buying into what we need to do.”

Germond said the whole team had a meeting about the complete commitment. “The culture that we want to set as a team is the just the work ethic, whether in the games, in the classroom,” he said. “How you behave outside of soccer as far as nutrition and getting enough rest; we just want players who are committed to what we are about.”

Harris said she believes that coach’s huge emphasis on being physically fit is what gives the Rams an edge over their opponents, making it easier to overwhelm them.

“We have to be like high pressure defending and we’re constantly running circles, double and triple teaming,” harris said. “In order to do all that high pressure, we have to be really fit.”

Sophomore midfielder Kelly Garzon credits team chemistry for allowing teammates to hold each other accountable. “It helps us out on the field because we can receive criticism enough to the point that we’re so comfortable with each other that we won’t take it the wrong way,” Garzon said.

Despite the success, the Rams have been hit with some significant injuries that could threaten the success of the rest of the season.

“We lost one of our starting defenders to a broken collarbone,” Germond said. “Breanna Kriss is going to be out for six weeks, so that is a big loss. Jessica [Robles] is out with a with a knee injury; Jaime Oftedal is out with a knee injury, and then Denise is out with an ankle injury.”

“That’s four potential starters that are out right now, so it is good that we have a deep team, but now, our team isn’t as deep anymore,” Germond said. “When you lose four potential starters, that is a big loss.”

Yesseniah Delgadillo and Harris are tied for the team lead in goals and points with 10 apiece, followed by Jenelle Fino with six and Camilla Figueira with four.

The team’s defense is stout. FCC is scoring 2.1 goals per game while giving up only an average of a half a goal per game.