SUWANEE, Ga. -- The Trinity University women’s basketball team is favored to win the 2024-25 Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference basketball title, based on preseason balloting from the league’s head coaches.

The Texas Tigers (23-6 overall; 15-1 SCAC), who earned their fourth-straight league championship last season and 11th overall, garnered nine first-place votes to top the coaches' poll with 119 points. Trinity head coach Cameron Hill returns senior and two-time all-SCAC guard Josie Napoli, who led the Tigers with 16.0 points per game a season ago and finished 10th in the nation in three-pointers made with 78 (tied for eighth all-time in SCAC history). Trinity led the nation a year ago with 293 made three-pointers (10.1 per game) and was seventh in three-point field goal percentage at 36.1 percent. Also back for the Tigers is senior guard Bailey Timmons, who earned Honorable Mention All-SCAC honors last season, and junior forward Natalie Anderson, who was averaging 18.8 points and 9.4 rebounds per game before an early December injury ended her season prematurely. 

Coach Hill is the second winningest coach (in terms of winning percentage) in SCAC women's basketball history, having won 89.2 percent of his conference games (157-19) in his 12 years on the Trinity sideline. His 157 conference wins is also second all-time. Hill has guided the Tigers to seven SCAC tournament titles and, in NCAA post season play, Trinity has advanced to at least the third round two of the last three years.

Colorado College (20-8 overall; 12-4 SCAC), who has finished as tournament runner-up to Trinity each of the last four seasons, earned two first-place votes and finished second in the poll with 111 points. The CC Tigers return the league's 2023-24 Player of the Year in senior center Zoe Tomlinson. A consensus all-American, Tomlinson led the SCAC in both scoring (17.7 ppg) and rebounding (14.0 rpg) last season and is already seventh on the league's all-time rebounding list with 910. Senior guard/forward Healy Bledsoe, the league's Defensive Player of the Year and a third-team all-SCAC selection last season, is also back.

Texas Lutheran University (20-6 overall; 13-3 SCAC) earned the remaining first-place vote and came in third in the preseason balloting with 101 points. The Bulldogs are the only team to return three all-SCAC players from last season, including a pair of First Team all-SCAC guards in senior Kailee Mulkey and junior guard Lauren Sansano. Mulkey averaged 11.3 points, 5.7 rebounds and 2.0 steals per game in 2023-24 and Sansano followed at 9.9 points, 3.5 rebounds and 1.8 steals per game. Also returning is senior guard Kayla Presley, who earned Third Team all-SCAC honors a year ago after averaging 8.2 points and 4.1 rebounds per contest.

McMurry University, one of three new members of the conference who will make their SCAC debut this season, makes its inaugural appearance in the pre-season rankings at fourth with 78 points. The War Hawks, who finished 16-10 last season and 10-6 in the ASC, return the American Southwest Conference Co-Player of the Year in senior guard Emily Holland. Holland averaged 19.4 points per game last season and led the conference in three-pointers with 78. Junior guard Kylie Flippin, who earned Second Team All-ASC honors a year ago after averaging 15.1 points per game, also returns.

Austin College (9-17 overall; 7-9 SCAC) is slated to finish fifth in the preseason rankings with 77 points while Schreiner University (10-17 overall; 8-8 SCAC) was tabbed to finish sixth with 71 points. The 'Roos return sophomore guard Lexi Martin (10.4 points per game) who earned all-Freshman team honors a year ago while the Mountaineers will lean on all-SCAC Honorable Mention Team junior guard Brie Sosa (8.9 points per game).

Rounding out the preseason standings is University of the Ozarks in seventh with 55 points, Southwestern University eighth with 44 points, University of Dallas in ninth with 43 points, Concordia University (Texas) coming in 10th with 41 points, University of St. Thomas in 11th with 39 points and Centenary College rounding out the balloting with 13 points.

The top six teams in the conference will qualify for the SCAC Women's Basketball Tournament, which will be held February 28 through March 2 and hosted by University of Dallas in Irving, Texas. The winner of that event will earn the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

The 2024-25 season begins on Friday, November 8. SCAC Men's and Women's Basketball Medis Days kicks off on Monday, November 4th, be sure to check out scacsports.com for interviews with all of your favorite SCAC squads.