The Western New Mexico University women's basketball team was selected to finish 10th in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Preseason Coaches' Poll. The ranking comes on the heels of the Lady Mustangs' first appearance in the RMAC tournament since the mid-90’s.
Colorado mesa was the pick to win with 221 total points and 11 first-place votes, and will be looking to defend last year's regular-season RMAC title. UC-Colorado Springs and Colorado Christian round out the top-three in the poll. UCCS garnered three first-place votes, while Colorado Christian and Regis each received one first place vote. Regis is picked to finish seventh. Colorado Mesa's Erin Reichle was selected as the Preseason Player of the Year, while UCCS' Brittany Hernandez is tabbed as the Defensive Player of the Year.
In terms of breakdown by division, WNMU is picked to finish fifth in the Mountain Division, while Colorado Christian is the pick to win the division.
WNMU has a pair of seniors, seven juniors, four sophomores and three freshmen on this year's roster. The Lady Mustangs return eight players from last year's team that posted a 14-13 overall record and an 11-11 mark in the RMAC. The Lady Mustangs did lose a lot of their offensive power from last year’s team, leading to the lower prediction by the RMAC coaches.
Top returning players in terms of stats from last year:
Sophomore Jade Botelho (Honolulu, HI/Iolani High School) is the top scorer that returns with 7.7 points per game. She played in 27 games, starting 11 averaging 20.7 minutes per game and also brought down 4.7 rebounds.
Junior Jordan Gutierrez (Albuquerque, NM/Valley High School) played in all 27 games averaging 3.7 points and tallied 19 assists and 19 steals in averaging 13.7 minutes per game.
Senior My'Kale French (Racine, WI/Case High School) saw action in 19 games where she averaged 2.5 points along with nine assists and eight steals in averaging 7.2 minutes per contest.
Sophomore Taylor McCauley (Cliff, NM/Cliff High School) played in 15 games and averaged 1.5 points and 1.3 rebounds along with three blocks and three steals in 7.7 minutes per contest.
Senior Cristiana Yepa (Dulce, NM/Dulce High School) logged action in five games where she averaged 1.8 points and 2.4 rebounds in 4.4 minutes per game.
Junior Kenzie Rinehart (Deming, NM/Deming High School) played in four games and averaged 0.8 points and 1.5 rebounds in 7.0 minutes per game.
Sophomores Audrey Oliver (Las Cruces, NM/Mayfield High School) and Lucy Benning (El Paso, TX/El Paso High School) each played in one game. Oliver tallied two points, two assists, a rebound and two steals in seven minutes, while Benning collected six points, three rebounds and an assist in 10 minutes.
Of the new players on the team, Jayla Brown (Phoenix, AZ/Desert Vista High School), Jada Gray, Myla Woods-Brown(Roswell, NM/Roswell High School), Desiree Smith (Phoenix, AZ/Tolleson Union High School) and Deandra Williams(Rosenburg, TX/Terry High School) transfer in as juniors, while Megan Looney (Phoenix, AZ/Apache Junction High School), Dahlia Perez (El Paso, TX/Canutillo High School) and Elise Medina (Albuquerque, NM/Del Norte High School)join the team as freshmen.
The Lady Mustangs open the season on Nov. 4 at the University of New Mexico in an exhibition contest beginning at 7 p.m. The regular season will open up on Nov. 13 at Oklahoma Panhandle State University.