Lady Pios picked to win HCAC

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WTVQ) – (via Transy Sports) The Transylvania women’s basketball team will enter the 2017-2018 season as the conference favorite, voted as the first-place team in the annual survey of the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference preseason coaches’ poll, the conference announced Monday.

Transylvania received a conference-high 94 voting points, including five of 10 available first-place votes in the 2017 preseason coaches’ poll to lead the list of 10 teams. Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology followed closely behind with 90 voting points and four first-place votes, while Bluffton University checked in at third with 85 points and the other first-place vote.

The Pioneers are coming off a third-place finish in HCAC regular season play last season and a runner-up finish in the conference tournament championship game, enduring a 50-40 defeat to regular season and conference tournament champion Rose-Hulman to finish off a season of ascent.

A team with no seniors in 2016-2017, the Pioneers return all five starters to their lineup for the 2017-2018 season as they aim to win their first conference title in three seasons.

According the preseason poll, the majority of coaches around the conference forecast the Pioneers to rise to the top past Rose-Hulman, which clinched the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament last season, and Bluffton, which was the NCAA Tournament automatic qualifier two seasons ago.

Transylvania begins its 2017-2018 odyssey on Sunday, November 19 at Marietta College in Marietta, Ohio for a 2:00 p.m. non-conference game.

For the full voting results, CLICK HERE