No one doubts that Wisconsin Whitewater is still the favorite to win the Great Midwest Conference, but other teams are bubbling up to a high level.

Loyola of Chicago has beaten UIC and DePaul and looked pretty good doing it. Their only loss was 27-22 to Illinois State, which sits 3-0.

UW-Platteville is only 1-2, but beat UW-Milwaukee 22-19 on a dramatic last-minute score. 

“We’re implementing a new strategy on how we’re playing,” said Platteville’s Richard Bergemann. “We’re working on being more organized on defense.”

Platteville lost 10-5 to Marquette the week before, but playing Marquette so close instilled a little confidence into the Platteville team.

“We are definitely playing better,” said Bergemann.

Also looking like a contender is Northern Iowa. After hitting UIC 48-5 UNI is 3-0, tied with Illinois State at the top of the Great MW South.

“We’ve been working really hard,” said Eric Pimentel of the UNI team. “We had some players who got injured last fall and in the spring, but they’re back and stronger than ever.”

Max Tensen has come back from an ACL injury and has been on the scoresheet more than once. Hooker Kaleb Boleyn has been playing well, while Ashton Johnson has been kicking superbly, and has 43 points in three games.

But there’s more to UNI’s success than that.

“We’ve been working on building camaraderie,” said Pimentel. “We’ve been spending time together away from training and it’s really worked well. We’re playing more as a team now.”