(Monday, October 19; Sioux Center, Iowa) The Great Plains Athletic Conference has announced the results of its Preseason Women's Basketball Coaches' Poll and the Dordt Defenders are picked first in the voting.
Dordt is tied with Dakota Wesleyan in the voting with the two evenly splitting the 12 first place votes and totaling an identical 116 points.Â
Dordt returns three players who started all 37 games for the Defenders and helped them to a runner-up finish in the NAIA. Last year featured Dordt's third national championship game appearance in a row and its fourth in five years.
Gracie (Schoonhoven) Van Donge returns after scoring 22.4 points per game for a Defender team that converted 85.6 points per game and she had 6.2 rebounds and 2.2 steals per game. Willow (Bleeker) Harken scored 8.4 points per game while starting all 37 games and she converted 42 percent of her three-point shots.
Olivia Harazin is also back after scoring 7.4 points per game and
Aubrey Burkhart appeared in all 37 games for Dordt and scored 9.2 points per game with 40 percent success on three-point shots.
Dordt was 34-3 last season while claiming its fourth straight GPAC title and the team will open the season at home on Thursday, October 29 against Viterbo (Wisconsin). Dordt's first GPAC contest is on November 3 when Dordt travels to face Waldorf in Forest City, Iowa.
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| RANK |
TEAM |
POINTS |
1st Place Votes |
| 1. |
DAKOTA WESLEYAN |
116 |
6 |
| 2. |
DORDT |
116 |
6 |
| 3. |
CONCORDIA |
96 |
|
| 4. |
HASTINGS |
95 |
|
| 5. |
BRIAR CLIFF |
79 |
|
| 6. |
NORTHWESTERN |
70 |
|
| 7. |
MORNINGSIDE |
58 |
|
| 8. |
MOUNT MARTY |
56 |
|
| 9. |
DOANE |
43 |
|
| 10. |
MIDLAND |
28 |
|
| 11. |
COLLEGE OF SAINT MARY |
21 |
|
| 12. |
WALDORF |
14 |
|
