Men's soccer and volleyball are No. 2 in their sports in the Independent conference ratings released Monday.

The top four Independent teams will qualify for the league tournament.

Men's soccer coach Paul Conway said conference raters decide the order of teams from respective conferences, but the NAIA will use a mathematical formula similar to football's BCS to determine the top four Independent teams at the end of the season.

"There are several components like strength of schedule and points for home and away games," Conway said. "We really don't know where we stand until the last poll, but we feel like we are in a pretty good situation."

Lambuth soccer (10-4-1) has won its last four games and will end its regular season Saturday against Belhaven.

"Belhaven is a top-tier team that could really help our cause if we get a win," Conway said. "To have double-digit wins in a season is also a good accomplishment."

The men's soccer team trails No. 7 Simon Fraser out of British Columbia.

Conway said the tournament will be at Our Lady of the Lake in San Antonio on Nov. 14-15.

"An at-large bid would be very difficult to get, so we need the automatic bid that comes from winning that tournament," Conway said.

Lambuth volleyball (12-10) has won six of eight matches to put itself into contention for one of the four tournament spots.

Coach Bubbles Lee said a similar formula is used to determine the four participants.

The Eagles have three remaining matches, including today's match at Bethel (12-10, 7-6) and a season-ending match Saturday against Freed-Hardeman (27-3, 11-0), who is receiving votes in the latest Tachikara-NAIA Volleyball Coaches' Top 25 Poll.

"Three wins this week would definitely help us get into that top four," Lee said. "We have been able to eliminate some of the mistakes we were making earlier this season, and that has played a big part in our success.

"We missed some serves, and we weren't working together as well as we are now."

Lee said the improvement of freshmen Leia Pittman and Rebecca Dufford has helped put the team tournament position.

Pittman is No. 12 in the nation with 115 total blocks while Dufford is second on the team with 160 kills.

David Thomas-Jackson Sun