Wooster Picked to Finish in the Middle of the NCAC Race

WOOSTER, Ohio – The College of Wooster women’s basketball team was chosen to finish sixth among the field of nine teams in the North Coast Athletic Conference’s annual Basketball Media Day polls, released today by the NCAC league office.

Denison University, the defending NCAC tournament champions, earned the preseason favorite label in both polls. The Big Red received seven first-place votes from the league’s nine coaches and 14 from the 22-member media contingent, while totaling 79 points in the coaches’ poll and 182 of a possible 200 in the media poll.

Wittenberg University picked up the remaining coaches’ first-place tallies (two) as well as six first-place nods from the media, while Kenyon College secured the remaining two first-place votes in the media poll.

The coaches and media agreed on most of the league’s order of finish, too. Allegheny College was third, followed by Kenyon College and Ohio Wesleyan University in the top-half of the league.

Wooster was a unanimous sixth-place selection, and the coaches’ poll placed Oberlin College seventh and Earlham College eighth, while the media tabbed Earlham seventh and Oberlin eight. Both contingents agreed on the ninth-place selection of Hiram College.

The Scots have four starters, including first-team all-NCAC selection Carly Loehrke, and eight other letterwinners back from a team that was 7-19 a year ago. Wooster finished sixth in the NCAC standings for the third time with a 4-12 league record.

The Scots will open up 2006-07 by hosting the annual Nan Nichols Tournament on Nov. 18-19. Wooster will welcome Lake Erie College (6-17 last year), Olivet College (13-14), and Thiel College (7-13) that weekend.