CCAC Communications
CHICAGO – In conjunction with the NAIA National Women’s Basketball Preseason Poll, the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference released its league preseason poll on Wednesday with University of St. Francis and Saint Xavier University garnering the top two spots in both polls.
In the national poll, which now consists of all NAIA basketball-playing institutions after the two divisions were combined this past off-season, St. Francis landed in the No. 16 spot nationally. One year ago, the Saints were No. 8 in the final NAIA II poll. Saint Xavier also landed in the Top 25 at No. 23 after placing ninth in the last NAIA II poll of 2019-20.
The two teams split a pair of conference titles one year ago with Saint Xavier going a perfect 22-0 in league play to capture the regular-season title, while St. Francis defeated Saint Xavier in the conference tournament championship game.
In the conference poll, nine of 13 first-place votes went to St. Francis to land the No. 1 position in the preseason poll. The other four first-place votes were dispersed evenly between Saint Xavier, Indiana University South Bend, Olivet Nazarene University and St. Ambrose University.
Those teams also manned the Nos. 2-5 positions in the poll. The full poll with last year’s overall and conference records for each team follows:
- St. Francis (30-5, 20-2 CCAC)
- Saint Xavier (29-5, 22-0)
- Indiana South Bend (25-7, 16-6)
- Olivet Nazarene (22-10, 18-4)
- St. Ambrose (16-14, 14-8)
- Indiana Northwest (11-19, 8-14)
- Governors State (12-19, 9-13)
- Trinity International (18-13, 12-10)
- Cardinal Stritch (10-18, 8-14)
- Trinity Christian (8-22, 6-16)
- Holy Cross (9-21, 8-14)
- Lincoln (19-9, NA)
- Roosevelt (7-23, 6-16)
- Judson (2-26, 2-20)
- Calumet St. Joseph (3-26, 2-20)
Conference play begins on January 2, 2021 with non-conference dates slated to commence in two weeks.
The full NAIA national poll can be found at National Poll.