(Friday, October 23; Sioux Center, Iowa) The NAIA Women's Basketball Preseason Coaches' Top 25 Poll has been announced and the Dordt Defenders are no. 7 in the voting after finishing last season with a 34-3 record and a NAIA National Championship Runner-Up finish.

Dordt returns Gracie Van Donge (Schoonhoven) after she averaged 22.4 points per game with 6.2 rebounds and she converted 61 percent of her field goal attempts. Aubrey Burkhart appeared in all 37 games last season and averaged 9.2 points per game while converting 86 three-point shots.  Willow Harken (Bleeker) started all 37 games along with Olivia Harazin and the duo averaged 8.4 and 7.4 points per game respectively.  Ellie Lems, who started all 37 games as a sophomore in 2024-25 but missed last season, returns and averaged 6.9 points per game during her sophomore campaign.   There are nine newcomers on the 2026-27 Dordt roster.

Dordt opens the season on Thursday, October 29 at 6pm against Viterbo. The Defenders are scheduled to open the GPAC schedule on Tuesday, November 3 at Forest City, Iowa against Waldorf.  The GPAC season will be a double-round robin and will consist of 22 games.  Dordt also plays six non-conference games and an exhibition game against North Dakota State in Fargo on December 30.   Dordt has nine games scheduled against teams in the preseason poll and four GPAC teams occupy spots in the top-20 of the poll.
 

RANK	INSTITUITION   [FIRST-PLACEVOTES]	2025-26 RECORD
1	Marian (Ind.) [4]	35-2
2	Dakota Wesleyan (S.D.) [5]	29-7
3	Dakota State (S.D.)	30-6
4	Bethel (Tenn.) [7]	28-6
5	Freed-Hardeman (Tenn.)	29-4
6	Lindsey Wilson (Ky.)	23-9
7	Dordt (Iowa) [1]	34-3
8	Campbellsville (Ky.)	25-8
9	Saint Francis (Ind.) [2]	30-5
10	Concordia (Neb.)	23-8
11	Georgetown (Ky.)	25-9
12	Rocky Mountain (Mont.)	21-10
13	Rio Grande (Ohio)	31-2
14	Indiana Wesleyan	19-14
15	Benedictine (Kan.)	24-8
16	Montana Tech	26-5
17	MidAmerica Nazarene (Kan.)	28-4
18	Hastings (Neb.)	24-9
19	Loyola (La.)	25-5
20	College of the Ozarks (Mo.)	25-11
21	Southeastern (Fla.)	28-4
22	College of Idaho	22-9
23	Oregon Tech	19-12
24	Carroll (Mont.)	19-11
25	Spring Arbor (Mich.)	24-8

 
Receiving Votes: Bethel (Ind.), Bethel (Kan.), Columbia (Mo.), Corban (Ore.), Cumberland (Tenn.), Cumberlands (Ky.), Eastern Oregon, Evangel (Mo.), Faulkner (Ala.), Friends (Kan.), Huntington (Ind.), Indiana Tech, IU South Bend (Ind.), Langston (Okla.), Lewis-Clark State (Idaho), LSU Shreveport (La.), Mid-America Christian (Okla.), Olivet Nazarene (Ill.), St. Francis (Ill.), William Carey (Miss.), Williams Baptist (Ark.)