ASHLAND — Ashland University’s women’s basketball team finished 2016-17 as the best in NCAA Division II, and the Eagles will start 2017-18 there, according to the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA).
In the WBCA Division II Preseason Coaches’ Poll, released on Tuesday (Oct. 31) afternoon, Ashland is ranked No. 1 prior to the start of a campaign for the second time (2012-13). The Eagles received 23 of 24 first-place votes, with last season’s national runner-up, Virginia Union, garnering the other.
Last season, the Eagles completed Division II’s first 37-0 women’s or men’s basketball season, scoring a D-II women’s hoops-record 3,456 points in the process. It was the program’s second national championship.
Ashland will enter 2017-18 with the longest winning streak (37 games) of any basketball team, men or women, at any level of the NCAA.
This is the 35th consecutive poll in which Ashland has been in the WBCA Top 25, and the 14th straight poll at No. 1 – tied for the second-longest streak in the poll’s history, dating back to 1982. The Eagles have been ranked as the top team in the country 27 times, fourth-most in the history of the poll, and their streak of 18 straight polls in the Top 5 is the longest active mark in the country.
Ashland has been ranked in the WBCA Top 25 in the preseason five times, all since 2012-13.
The Eagles played at Ohio State in an exhibition game on Sunday (Oct. 29), and will face perennial NCAA Division I contender Connecticut on the road in another exhibition on Sunday (Nov. 5) at 1 p.m. Ashland’s regular season will begin on Nov. 10 at 5:30 p.m. vs. Ohio Dominican in the G-MAC/GLIAC/GLVC Crossover at Cedarville, Ohio.
Coverage of Ashland University Eagles athletics is produced in partnership with OhioHealth, the official sports medicine provider for Ashland University.
