BURNSVILLE, MINN. -- The University of Sioux Falls Women's Basketball Team, which won its first-ever Northern Sun Intercollegiate South Division title and earned a bid in the NCAA DII Central Regional in 2019-20, has been picked to finish fourth in the 2020-21 league coaches preseason poll released on Wednesday, Dec. 15.
The Cougars, which lost seven seniors but returns experience and several talented newcomers, will look to win a second straight NSIC South Division title.
USF, which has earned votes in the D2SIDA Preseason National Poll and ranked fifth in its Central Region Poll, received 27 ballot points but one of the seven first place ballots. Minnesota State received 43 points and three first place votes while Augustana and Winona State each had 35 ballot points and two first place votes. Minnesota Duluth was picked to win the North Division title after earning 49 ballot points and seven of eight first place votes. St. Cloud State was second with 41 points and MSU Moorhead third with 37 ballot points. USF opens on the road at U-Mary at 6 pm on Saturday, Jan. 2 and 4 pm on Sunday, Jan. 3.
The NSIC schedule will be 16-games played over 8 weeks with teams playing the same opponent at one site on back-to-back days. The season will start with two non-conference games against one NSIC out-of-division opponent. The conference schedule will then consist of 14 games with teams playing each member of its division twice. For this season, the NSIC will only crown a North Division and South Division Champion. In the balloting, NSIC coaches ranked each team from 1 to 7 with a first place vote receiving 7 points, second place 6, third place 5, etc. Coaches do not rank their own team or vote for their own players in the preseason poll.
The NSIC / Sanford Health Men's & Women's Basketball Tournament Quarterfinals, Semifinals and Championships are set to take place Thursday-Sunday, February 25-28 at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The top for teams from each division will make up the eight-team field for the 2021 tournament.
USF finished 26-6 a year ago with a 17-5 NSIC mark, directed by all-time wins leader Head Coach
Travis Traphagen (243-117). The Cougars return senior
Anna Goodhope (10.6 ppg, 4.7 rpg, 705 career points and 97 threes), and juniors
Hannah Jones (191 points and167 rebounds in her career)
Kiara James (166 points and 74 rebounds in her career) and
Krystal Carlson (235 points and 124 rebounds in her career), who all have started games.
USF also added DI transfer & junior Anne Brecht (3.9 ppg, 1.3 rpg, 161 career points, 60 rebounds, 51 three pointers), from DI Green Bay-Wisconsin. Another DI transfer is
Emily Petersen (142 career points, 38 3s) from Nebraska Omaha and point guard
Dallie Hoskinson (9.9 ppg, 8.2 rpg, 5.1 apg, 425 career points, 367 rebounds and 222 assists) from Johnson County Community College which was 28-5 & ranked nationally a year ago. Also back will be seniors
Lauren Sanders (359 career points, 91 career threes), &
Amanda Dagostino, freshman
Madison Wuebben (15.4 ppg, 5.5 rpg) of Yankton, S.D.,
Megan Fannin (16.5 ppg, 3.5 rpg) from Watertown, S.D.
Brecht, a 6-0 junior media studies major from Sioux Falls, S.D., was named USF's Player to Watch in the NSIC announcement today. During two years at DI Wisconsin-Green Bay, she led the Phoenix to 41-28 record. She totaled five double digit games with career-high 15 vs Oakland on Jan. 9, 2020. Brecht is a former prep player of the year in South Dakota and all-time leading scorer at Lincoln HS in Sioux Falls with 1,662 points.
Traphagen has directed USF to six 20-win seasons, two NCAA DII Central Regional berths (2015-16, No. 7 seed; 2019-20, No. 3 seed) and a NSIC South Division title in his 12 seasons at USF. He has had back-to-back 20-win seasons twice at the DII level, including the 2019-20 (26-6) and 2018-19 (23-8) seasons. He also had back-to-back 20-win campaigns in 2015-16 and 2016-17 with the first NCAA Tournament berth in USF Women's Basketball history in 2015-16.
At the DII level, he has had four 20-win seasons with at least 22 wins each year. The 27 wins in the 2015-16 season is the most by USF at the DII level.
