In head coach Roman Owen's initial season, the Mid-America Christian Lady Evangels have been picked to finish 10th in the Sooner Athletic Conference preseason women's basketball poll, the league office announced today.
The Oklahoma City Stars are the trendy pick to win the league championship this season, receiving the maximum 11 first-place votes. Wayland Baptist got the remaining first-place tally as coaches were not allowed to vote for their own team.
The Stars are coming off a 32-4 overall record last year and a 21-1 conference mark that tied them with Oklahoma Baptist for the regular season title.
OCU wound up with a perfect 121 points in the poll, followed by OBU at 103. Lubbock Christian (97) was third, with Wayland Baptist, Oklahoma Christian and Southern Nazarence coming in tied for fourth with 80 points each.
Rogers State (75), John Brown (45), Northwestern Oklahoma State (42) and MACU (28) rounded out the top 10.
St. Gregory's (22) and the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma concluded the 12-team poll.
OCU is the defending SAC tournament champion and advanced to the NAIA national semifinals last season.
The Lady Evangels were 16-17 overall and 7-15 in the SAC last year and look for continued improvement in Owen's first season at the helm.
"Concerning the SAC preseason poll, the women's program here at Mid-America Christian is motivated to be the best we can be throughout this coming year," Owen said.
"The SAC has tremendous teams and possesses a long road through the upcoming season. We're going to do everything we can as a program to make the strides we feel we can make."
MACU begins the 2010-11 campaign on Friday evening (Nov. 5) by hosting Texas Wesleyan at 5:30 p.m. at the Gaulke Activity Center.
