Preseason All-OVC Team & Predicted Order of Finish
EVANSVILLE, Ind. - Eastern Illinois women's basketball has been selected to finish tenth in the Ohio Valley Conference preseason poll released on Tuesday at the conference media day at the Ford Center in Evansville, Ind. Junior guard
Karle Pace was named to the preseason All-OVC team.
EIU won 11 games last season as head coach
Matt Bollant guided the Panthers to an eight-win improvement in his second year leading the program. The eight wins were the third largest win total improvement in school history. This season the Panthers look to continue that improvement as they return four starters from last season.
Junior guard
Karle Pace is one of those four starters after having led the team in scoring each of the last two seasons. Pace averaged 13.9 points per game last season as she was named to this year's preseason All-OVC team.
She will be joined by backcourt teammate
Taylor Steele while veteran players
Grace McRae,
Jennifer Nehls and
Abby Wahl will anchor the post for EIU. The Panthers return four of their top five scorers from last season and three of the team's top four rebounders.
Belmont was selected as the preseason league favorite receiving 14 of 24 first-place votes. UT Martin was second with nine first place votes while Tennessee Tech was third with the final first place vote. Austin Peay, Jacksonville State, Southeast Missouri, Morehead State and Murray State were selected fourth through eighth as the top eight teams advance to the OVC Tournament on March 4-7 at the Ford Center in Evansville. SIUE, Eastern Illinois, Tennessee State and Eastern Kentucky were the final four schools in the preseason poll.
Belmont's Ellie Harmeyer was named the OVC Preseason Player of the Year as she was one of three Belmont players on the preseason team. Maura Muensterman and Maddie Wright from Belmont were preseason selections. Jordan Brock (TTU), Arielle Gonzalez-Varner (APSU),
Karle Pace (EIU), Chelsey Perry (UTM), Tesia Thompson (SEMO), Macey Turley (MUR) and Maddie Waldrop (UTM) rounded out the preseason All-OVC team.
EIU will host Illinois Wesleyan on Friday, Nov. 1 for the Panthers lone exhibition game. The regular season opens for EIU at home with three straight home games against Lindenwood (Mo.) on Nov. 5, Indiana State on Nov. 10 and Loyola-Chicago on Nov. 13. The OVC season begins on Jan. 2 as the Panthers will play four straight on the road to open the year.
