KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The IU Southeast Women's Basketball program finds itself just outside the NAIA Division II Women's Basketball Coaches' Top 25 Poll, which was released Monday by the NAIA national office. The Grenadiers received eight votes from national raters in this week's top 25 poll. The IU Southeast women's basketball program is currently 18-8 overall and an undefeated 11-1 in the Kentucky Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (KIAC).

Despite having 13 teams shuffle rank, including half of the top 10, Hastings (Neb.) remains at No. 1 in the ninth installment of the NAIA Division II Coaches' Top 25 Poll. The Broncos were awarded all 15 possible first-place votes for 405 points.

Davenport (Mich.) held on to the No. 2 spot with 391 points, followed by No. 3 Cedarville (Ohio) and Northwestern (Iowa) with 378 and 367 points, respectively. Black Hills State (S.D.) moves into the top-five this week with 349 points. The 10th and final poll of the season will be announced on Feb. 22.

A pair of teams move into the Top 25, one making its first appearance of the 2009-10 season and the other returning to the poll. Holy Names (Calif.) is making its first appearance in the poll this season, checking in at No. 25. After earning a preseason No. 8 ranking, eventually falling out of the poll and spending three weeks receiving votes, Bethel (Ind.) is once again ranked, this week at No. 24. The duo replaces Cornerstone (Mich.) and Marian (Ind.), ranked 23rd and 24th, respectively, a week ago.

The Great Plains Athletic Conference continues to hold dominance over the poll with five teams listed. This marks the fourth national ranking in which the GPAC has had five ranked squads. Not only that, but the GPAC is the only conference this season to have five ranked clubs. Hastings, Northwestern, No. 7 Briar Cliff (Iowa), No. 11 Morningside (Iowa) and No. 22 Concordia (Neb.) represent the league.

The Mid-Central College Conference has four ranked squads in No. 8 Indiana Wesleyan, No. 11 Saint Francis (Ind.), No. 17 Huntington (Ind.) and No. 24 Bethel (Ind.).

Top-ranked Hastings again prevailed against a top-five opponent, defeating fourth-ranked Northwestern 83-70 on Feb. 13 to improve to 25-3, 15-1 GPAC. The win clinched the Broncos second outright and third overall regular-season league crown and earned them an automatic berth into the State-Farm NAIA Division II Women's Basketball National Championship in Sioux City, Iowa, March 10-16 at the Tyson Events Center. Hastings still has two regular season games remaining, playing at Dana (Neb.) on Tuesday and Dakota Wesleyan (S.D.) on Saturday, before the conference tournament gets underway Feb. 23.

Davenport had the power of four on Feb. 13. The Lady Panthers captured their fourth regular-season Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference title with a 10-point, 71-61 victory over Aquinas (Mich.) on Feb. 13. The win, the fourth straight, pushed the Lady Panthers to 25-2, 11-1. Junior guard Kristi Boehm also set the single-season steals record of 112 with four during the game. Davenport has two games remaining before postseason play gets underway at the WHAC tournament on Feb. 25. The Lady Panthers will play host to Indiana Tech on Wednesday and will look to avenge a Jan. 27 loss (65-54) to Cornerstone (Mich.) on Saturday at home.

The winners of 16 straight games, Cedarville owns the top spot in the American Mideast Conference with a 24-3, 15-1 record. Last week in a clash of top-10 teams, the Lady Jackets prevailed over league foe and then-No. 7 Shawnee State (Ohio) 82-71. Cedarville, the country's best from the charity stripe at 78.3 percent, made 20-of-22 free throws in the second half and was 23-of-26 for the game to secure the win. The Lady Jackets followed up with a 78-55 win over Mount Vernon Nazarene (Ohio) on Feb. 13. Three games are on the docket this week to close out the regular season. The home finale is on Tuesday against Northwestern Ohio, followed by a pair of road games at Ursuline (Ohio) on Thursday and Shawnee State on Saturday.

Even though Northwestern came up short, 83-70, to No. 1 Hastings on Feb. 13, the Red Raiders held on to their No. 4 ranking for a second week. The loss dropped Northwestern's record to 22-4, 13-3 GPAC and is second in the league standings. Prior to the Hastings loss, the Red Raiders avenged an 81-75 loss on Dec. 9 to Morningside with an 87-83 victory on Feb. 10. Becca Hurley scored a season-high 31 points, including the final four points of the game in the win. A two-game home stand closes out the regular season for the Red Raiders, playing host to Dakota Wesleyan on Wednesday and Sioux Falls (S.D.) on Saturday. Northwestern has won both previous meetings, winning by 27 and 12 points, respectively.

Black Hills State (21-5, 10-2 DAC) climbs into the top five for the first time this season while riding a 10-game winning streak. The Yellow Jackets are averaging 75.4 ppg during the streak, while limiting opponents to 59.5 ppg and beating four foes by 20-or more points. The largest margin of victory was a 32-point difference against Mayville State (N.D.). With a 10-2 Dakota Athletic Conference mark, the Yellow Jackets own the top-spot in the league with just two games remaining. Black Hills State will close out the regular season at home against No. 13 Minot State (N.D.) on Friday, followed by a Saturday contest against Dickinson State (N.D.). The DAC tournament opens Feb. 24.

The poll was voted upon by a panel of head coaches representing each of the conferences.

RANK	WEEK	SCHOOL (1ST PLACE VOTES)	RECORD
1	1	Hastings College (Neb.) (15)	25-3
2	2	Davenport University (Mich.)	25-2
3	3	Cedarville University (Ohio)	24-3
4	4	Northwestern College (Iowa)	22-4
5	6	Black Hills State University (S.D.)	21-5
6	8	College of the Ozarks (Mo.)	22-4
7	5	Briar Cliff University (Iowa)	23-5
8	9	Indiana Wesleyan University	23-5
9	8	Shawnee State University (Ohio)	20-5
10	10	Jamestown College (N.D.)	20-6
11	12	Morningside College (Iowa)	17-10
12	11	University of Saint Francis (Ind.)	17-10
13	13	Minot State University (N.D.)	19-6
14	14	Iowa Wesleyan College	21-7
15	15	Sterling College (Kan.)	21-4
16	17	Cardinal Stritch University (Wis.)	25-2
17	18	Huntington University (Ind.)	19-7
18	19	Grand View University (Iowa)	22-7
19	16	College of Idaho	17-6
20	20	Kansas Wesleyan University	19-6
21	21	Haskell Indian Nations University (Kan.)	19-6
22	25	Concordia University (Neb.)	19-9
23	24	Walsh University (Ohio)	20-8
24	RV	Bethel College (Ind.)	19-9
25	RV	Holy Names University (Calif.)	18-10

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Others receiving votes: Aquinas College (Mich.) 67; Northwood University (Fla.) 60; Mount Marty College (S.D.) 41; Milligan College (Tenn.) 37; Southwestern College (Kan.) 22; Taylor University (Ind.) 16; Mount Mercy College (Iowa) 10; Mount Vernon Nazarene University (Ohio) 9; Indiana University Southeast 8; Cornerstone University (Mich.) 7; Dickinson State University (N.D.) 6; Warner Pacific College (Ore.) 5; Ohio Dominican University 5; Saint Ambrose University (Iowa) 3; Saint Thomas University (Fla.) 1; Union College (Ky.) 1; Peru State College (Neb.) 1; Florida Memorial University 1; Eastern Oregon University 1; Bethel College (Kan.) 1; Bluefield College (Va.) 1; Marian University (Ind.) 1.