Rsc Women's Basketball Preseason Coaches' Poll & Preseason All-Conference Team Released
The 2022-23 River States Conference Women's Basketball Preseason Coaches' Poll and All-Conference team was released on Wednesday. The Grenadiers are tied for seventh overall with IU Kokomo and fifth in the RSC West. Lauren Lambdin and Emmy Ralph were preseason all-conference selections for the Grenadiers.
University of Rio Grande (Ohio) is picked as the clear favorite this year with 142 total votes and 10 of the 13 first-place votes in the overall polling of RSC head coaches. The RedStorm are also picked to win the RSC East Division.
Midway (Ky.) University is the favorite in the RSC West Division and came in second in the overall poll of the 13 schools in the league. The Eagles received two first-place votes toward the overall poll and 131 total votes.
Indiana University East (117 votes) came in third in the preseason polling followed by WVU Tech (107 votes) in fourth. The top six teams in the overall poll also feature Alice Lloyd (Ky.) College (98 votes) and Oakland City (Ind.) University (94 votes) before a gap in votes before the second half of the league ledger.
Rio Grande had an amazing record of 32-3 overall, 16-1 RSC last year. The RedStorm won the RSC Championship and advanced to the NAIA National Championship where it won a game to move on in the bracket. Midway was 26-8, 15-2 RSC last year and met Rio Grande in the conference finals. The Eagles also advanced in the national tournament with a victory as the conference was well-represented at nationals.
IU East was the third team from the RSC to make the national tournament last year. The Red Wolves were RSC semifinalists where they met Midway, and they ended the year at 25-8, 14-3 RSC. WVU Tech reached the conference semifinals and finished up at 16-16, 11-6 RSC. The Golden Bears received the final first-place vote toward the overall preseason poll.
After Alice Lloyd in fifth and Oakland City in sixth, IU Kokomo and IU Southeast tied for seventh in the poll with each getting 70 votes. Next up were Point Park (Pa.) University, Ohio Christian University, St. Mary-of-the-Woods (Ind.) College, Brescia (Ky.) University and Carlow (Pa.) University.
New this year is IU East moving to the RSC West Division and Alice Lloyd moving to the RSC East. Another change is that the top five teams in each division will qualifying for the 10-team RSC Championship as opposed to four in past years.
The RSC Women's Basketball Preseason All-Conference Team has the top 10 returning players in the league. Rio Grande senior Ella Skeens leads the team as the RSC Player of the Year and RSC Newcomer of the Year last season. Dezeree White from Midway is another top player from a top team in the conference. Rio Grande, IU East and IU Southeast lead the preseason team with two selections each.
For the complete RSC Women's Basketball Coaches' Preseason Poll and the RSC Preseason All-Conference Team, see below.
RSC WOMEN'S BASKETBALL COACHES PRESEASON POLL
| (FirstPlace Votes in Parenthesis) | ||
| Place | School | Votes |
| 1 | Rio Grande (Ohio) (10) | 142 |
| 2 | Midway (Ky.) (2) | 131 |
| 3 | IU East | 117 |
| 4 | WVU Tech (1) | 107 |
| 5 | Alice Lloyd (Ky.) | 98 |
| 6 | Oakland City (Ind.) | 94 |
| T-7 | IU Kokomo | 70 |
| T-7 | IU Southeast | 70 |
| 9 | Point Park (Pa.) | 59 |
| 10 | Ohio Christian | 46 |
| 11 | St. Mary-of-the-Woods (Ind.) | 43 |
| 12 | Brescia (Ky.) | 36 |
| 13 | Carlow (Pa.) | 13 |
| RSC WOMEN'S BASKETBALL EAST DIVISION | ||
| (First-Place Votes in Parenthesis) | ||
| Place | School | Votes |
| 1 | Rio Grande (Ohio) (11) | 70 |
| 2 | WVU Tech (1) | 59 |
| 3 | Alice Lloyd (Ky.) (1) | 53 |
| 4 | Point Park (Pa.) | 37 |
| 5 | Ohio Christian | 31 |
| 6 | Carlow (Pa.) | 18 |
| RSC WOMEN'S BASKETBALL WEST DIVISION | ||
| (First-Place Votes in Parenthesis) | ||
| Place | School | Votes |
| 1 | Midway (Ky.) (11) | 83 |
| 2 | IU East (2) | 73 |
| 3 | Oakland City (Ind.) | 57 |
| 4 | IU Kokomo | 48 |
| 5 | IU Southeast | 46 |
| 6 | St. Mary-of-the-Woods (Ind.) | 28 |
| 7 | Brescia (Ky.) | 21 |
| RSC WOMEN'S BASKETBALL PRESEASON ALL-CONFERENCE TEAM | |||
| Name | Pos. | Cl. | School |
| Ella Skeens | G/F | Sr. | Rio Grande (Ohio) |
| Dezeree White | F | Jr. | Midway (Ky.) |
| Lauren Lambdin | G | Sr. | IU Southeast |
| Addie Brown | G | Sr. | IU East |
| Taylor Dillard | G | Sr. | Oakland City (Ind.) |
| Emmy Ralph | G | Sr. | IU Southeast |
| Kaylee Darnell | G | So. | Rio Grande (Ohio) |
| Taylor Rinn | F | Sr. | Point Park (Pa.) |
| Rachel Bolyard | G | Sr. | Ohio Christian |
| Kennedy Griffin | G | Jr. | IU East |
Original source can be found here.
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