BALTIMORE -- The University of Delaware men’s lacrosse team, which lost its first two games of the season this past week with setbacks to nationally-ranked Georgetown and to Stony Brook, dropped nine spots to No. 16 in the United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association Top 20 poll announced Monday.

Delaware (5-2), which fell to then No. 12 Georgetown 18-10 Wednesday and 19-16 to Stony Brook Saturday, also dropped to No. 16 in the Nike/Inside Lacrosse media poll and to No. 13 in the Laxnews.com polls.

The Blue Hens, the defending Colonial Athletic Association champions, will begin defense of that title when they host Villanova in their CAA opener Saturday at 7 p.m. at Rullo Stadium.

Duke (7-0) remained in the top spot of the USILA poll with nine first place votes and 196 points followed by Virginia (8-0) with one first place vote and 191 points. Syracuse (5-1) was at No. 3 followed by North Carolina (5-1), Notre Dame (5-1), Johns Hopkins (3-2), Cornell (3-1), Navy (6-1), Maryland (5-2), and Georgetown (3-2) in the top 10.

Princeton (2-2) was at No. 11 followed by Bucknell (5-1), UMBC (3-3), Drexel (6-1), Hofstra (2-2), Delaware (5-2), Army (3-2), Loyola (3-2), Harvard (4-1), and Denver (3-3). Also receiving votes were Ohio State, Stony Brook, Colgate, Binghamton, Quinnipiac, Towson, and Pennsylvania.

In the Nike/Inside Lacrosse poll, Duke was No. 1 with 16 first place votes and 358 points. Virginia was at No. 2 with two first place votes and 344 points followed by Syracuse, Johns Hopkins, North Carolina, Notre Dame, Cornell, Navy, Maryland, and Georgetown in the top 10. Princeton was at No. 11 followed by Drexel, UMBC, Army, Bucknell, Delaware, Loyola, Hofstra, Harvard, and Stony Brook. Ohio State, Brown, Towson, Fairfield, Penn, Denver, Albany, and Canisius also received votes.

In the Laxnews.com poll, Duke was at No. 1 followed by Virginia, Syracuse, Johns Hopkins, North Carolina, Cornell, Notre Dame, Maryland, Georgetown, Princeton, Navy, Hofstra, Delaware, Bucknell, Loyola, Drexel, UMBC, Ohio State, Army, and Harvard.

Vincent Giordano (at right) is among the Blue Hens' leading scorers.