BURNSVILLE, Minn. – After two consecutive trips to the conference tournament championship game, University of Sioux Falls Women's Basketball was selected to finish 10th overall, sixth in the south division, in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference by the league coaches. USF's returning leading scorer, sophomore Kaely Hummel was tabbed as USF's player to watch.
 
Sioux Falls earned 123 points in the overall coaches' poll, placing them 10th and just three points out of eighth in the 16-team poll. MSU Moorhead was tabbed as the overall league favorite with 10 first-place votes and 213 total points. Northern State grabbed four first-place votes, helping them to 209 points and second-place billing. Augustana collected the final two first-place nods and was slotted third with 200 points.
 
In the south division poll, Augustana picked up five first-place votes and 47 points to earn the top billing. Wayne State earned the remaining three first-place votes for 44 points and second place in the eight-team poll. Sioux Falls picked up 20 points in the south division poll, placing them sixth. MSU Moorhead was also tabbed as the favorite in the NSIC north division.
 
USF has outperformed their NSIC preseason ranking in each of the past two seasons, winning 49 games over that span and advancing to the NSIC/Sanford Health Basketball Tournament championship game, winning it in 2016 to earn the program's first trip to the NCAA Division II Women's Basketball Tournament. Picked ninth in last season's preseason poll, the Cougars tied for fifth with a 15-7 conference record. Even as the third-place team in the 2015-16 preseason poll, USF finished second with a 17-5 record in league play.
 
A sophomore wing, Hummel leads a talented and young Sioux Falls team into the 2017-18 season. The Cherokee, Iowa native returns as USF's leading scorer after averaging 8.0 points per game in her freshman season. Hummel scored in double figures nine times last year, including a season-best 22 in USF's win at Augustana. She led the Cougars with 54 made 3-pointers last year and shot at a 34.6 percent clip on threes while connecting at 78.6 percent from the free throw line.
 
Led by Travis Traphagen in his 10th season as the head coach, the 2017-18 USF Women's Basketball team will have 15 underclassmen, including nine freshmen. However, the Cougars return seven letterwinners and two starters in Hummel and junior forward Jacey Huinker and key contributors sophomore Andi Mataloni and senior Moira Duffy.
 
Sioux Falls faces NCAA Division I Northern Iowa on Sunday, Nov. 5 in an exhibition game in Cedar Falls, Iowa. The Cougars open the regular season as hosts of Presentation College at the Stewart Center on Tuesday, Nov. 14 at 6 p.m.