LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. - The Trinity women's basketball team has been tabbed as the favorite for the 2018-19 Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference basketball season, based on balloting from the league's head coaches.

Trinity, which is in search of its eight SCAC women's basketball title, earned its third straight league championship a year ago by defeating Southwestern, 80-74, in the title game. The Tigers garnered four first-place votes to top the coaches' poll with 60 points. Coming in second in the preseason selections was Austin College, who had one more first-place vote than Trinity with five but fell one point short in the balloting with 59 points. The 'Roos, who shared regular season title honors with Trinity a year ago, have posted three-straight season with 18 or more wins for the first time since the 1996-97 through 1998-99 seasons. Southwestern, which last won a league title in 2014-15 finished third overall with 51 points, followed by Colorado College (43), Texas Lutheran (32), Schreiner (31), Centenary (21), John and Wales (16) and University of Dallas (11).

Trinity returns three all-conference performers and two starters off their 2017-18 squad that finished the regular season with an overall mark of 23-5 and made its 10th NCAA appearance in program history. The three-straight SCAC Tournament crowns tie a conference record set by DePauw (2006-2008) for most consecutive tournament titles won in league history. Junior forward Abby Holland headlines the Tiger returnees as a two-time All-SCAC honoree, including a first-team nod a season ago. Holland averaged 14.2 points on 45.5 percent shooting from the field and collected 5.7 rebounds and added one assist per contest last season. Sophomores Emily Daniel and Julia Ackerman join Holland as all-conference performers last year returning this season. The duo combined for 427 points and 134 rebounds as freshman and are expected to increase production to help an offense that has led the conference in scoring the past two seasons. Trinity which has averaged over 75 points per game the last two years is the first conference team to lead the league in scoring in consecutive seasons while averaging more the 75 points per contest since Oglethorpe accomplished that feat in the 2007-2008 and 2008-2009 seasons. Senior guard Rachel Chavez, who started all 28 games and averaged 3.4 points and 1.9 assists a season ago, will provide season leadership for a team that includes 13 underclassmen.

Trinity head coach Cameron Hill is back on the sidelines for his seventh season with the Tigers. In six total seasons at Trinity, he has amassed an overall record of 138-32 (.812) and stands at 73-12 (.859) in SCAC play. Hill has guided the Tigers to four SCAC Championships, three SCAC Tournament titles and an appearance in the NCAA Round of 16 in 2017.

The 2018-19 season begins on Friday, November 9, while the SCAC Tournament will be held at the end of February in Seguin, Texas, hosted by Texas Lutheran University beginning the 22nd.