The Southeastern University women’s basketball team came in at No. 2 in the NAIA Women’s Basketball Coaches’ Top 25 Preseason Poll. This marks the highest preseason national ranking in program history.
The Fire were the 2018-19 NAIA National Runners-Up, going 31-3 last season. The top team from the Sun Conference returns just one starter from the previous season in senior center Marlena Schmidt.
The poll was voted upon by a panel of head coaches representing each of the conferences, Association of Independent Institutions and Unaffiliated Groups.
The Top 25 is determined by a points system based on how each voter ranks the best teams. A team receives 30 points for each first-place vote, 29 for second-place and so on through the list.
Fellow Sun Conference member St. Thomas appeared in the receiving votes’ portion of the national rankings.
The Fire open up their season in a high-profile tournament in Point Lookout Missouri. SEU takes on No. 3 College of the Ozarks on Friday and either No. 1 Concordia (Neb.) or No. 12 Sterling the following day.
Be sure to follow @SEUFireWBB on Twitter for all of the latest updates on Fire Hoops!
| RANK | LAST WEEK | SCHOOL | RECORD | FINAL POINTS |
| 1 | 1 | Concordia (Neb.) [12] | 35-3 | 312 |
| 2 | 2 | Southeastern (Fla.) | 31-3 | 302 |
| 3 | 5 | College of the Ozarks (Mo.) | 31-4 | 284 |
| 4 | 7 | Indiana Tech | 32-4 | 270 |
| 5 | 16 | Dordt (Iowa) | 20-12 | 266 |
| 6 | 8 | Marian (Ind.) | 27-7 | 264 |
| 7 | 3 | Dakota Wesleyan (S.D.) | 31-6 | 258 |
| 8 | 9 | Eastern Oregon | 29-4 | 234 |
| 9 | 14 | St. Francis (Ill.) | 24-9 | 231 |
| 10 | 11 | Antelope Valley (Calif.) | 27-6 | 230 |
| 11 | 4 | Northwestern (Iowa) | 29-5 | 215 |
| 12 | 15 | Sterling (Kan.) | 27-6 | 195 |
| 13 | 24 | Saint Francis (Ind.) | 20-13 | 192 |
| 14 | 23 | Corban (Ore.) | 25-10 | 167 |
| 15 | 6 | Taylor (Ind.) | 30-5 | 165 |
| 16 | 13 | Hastings (Neb.) | 20-13 | 163 |
| 17 | RV | Saint Xavier (Ill.) | 21-10 | 158 |
| 18 | 10 | Tabor (Kan.) | 28-4 | 137 |
| 19 | 19 | Morningside (Iowa) | 19-13 | 126 |
| 20 | 12 | Bryan (Tenn.) | 31-2 | 109 |
| 21 | 25 | Oregon Tech | 24-10 | 92 |
| 22 | RV | Michigan-Dearborn | 24-7 | 80 |
| 23 | RV | Mayville State (N.D.) | 19-8 | 68 |
| 24 | RV | Olivet Nazarene (Ill.) | 21-12 | 66 |
| 25 | 18 | Indiana Northwest (Ind.) | 27-8 | 62 |
Receiving Votes: WVU Tech 50, Embry-Riddle (Ariz.) 47, Huntington (Ind.) 47, Indiana Wesleyan 38, Aquinas (Mich.) 33, Bellevue (Neb.) 31, Bethany (Kan.) 17, Southern Oregon 15, Cardinal Stritch (Wis.) 9, Milligan (Tenn.) 7, St. Thomas (Fla.) 5, UC Merced (Calif.) 4