KANSAS CITY, MO. – The Iowa Wesleyan College women’s basketball team is ranked 15th in the first regular season edition of the NAIA Division II Top 25 Coaches’ Poll, which was released Monday by the NAIA.
Despite some early season losses to strong teams, the Tigers dropped just three spots from their preseason ranking of 12th. IWC received 240 points in this week’s poll, putting the Tigers second of the two Midwest Collegiate Conference teams ranked. St. Ambrose University is ranked 11th in this week’s poll.
Wesleyan is currently 5-3 this season, with all three of its losses coming to difficult opponents. The Tigers lost in overtime at Morningside College, the third-ranked team in this week’s poll, and on a neutral site to Simpson College, which was ranked 26th in the preseason D3hoops.com NCAA Division III Top 25 poll this year. IWC also lost to Hastings (Neb.) College, which is unranked but last year was the top-ranked team in NAIA Division II at the end of the regular season.
Northwestern (Iowa) College and Davenport (Mich.) University were ranked 1-2 in the preseason top 25 coaches’ poll, and both continue to hold down the top two spots in the poll with matching 9-0 records. The University of St. Francis (Ind.) is ranked fourth, with Cornerstone (Mich.) University rated fifth. IWC will travel to a tournament hosted by Cornerstone on Dec. 18-19 in Grand Rapids, Mich.
The Tigers finished 1-1 this past weekend at the Buena Vista University Classic in Storm Lake, Iowa. IWC defeated Buena Vista on Friday 84-65 and lost to Simpson 96-78 on Saturday. Wesleyan returns to the court Tuesday night to face Culver-Stockton (Mo.) College at 5 p.m. in Canton, Mo.
NAIA Division II Women's Top 25 Poll
