LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. - Texas Lutheran is the fifth pick in the 2013-14 Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Women's Basketball Preseason Poll, released today by the conference office.
In exclusive balloting by SCAC women's head basketball coaches, defending league champion Trinity University was tabbed as the preseason favorite. The Tigers earned seven of eight first-place votes to go along with 49 points to take the top spot. Coaches could not vote for their own team.
Last year's runner up, Southwestern University, took the remaining first place vote for 43 points to finish second.Austin College (34 points) and the University of Dallas (28 votes) made up the top half of the poll, finishing third and fourth respectively.
Rounding out the rest of the poll are new SCAC members TLU (23 points) and Schreiner University (18 points), followed by Collorado College (17 points) and Centenary College (12 points).
TLU returns 10 letter-winners and two starters to a squad that went 8-17 overall and 6-12 in the American Southwest Conference a year ago. The entire TLU Athletics program now calls the SCAC home after playing in the ASC in basketball for 13 seasons, 2000-01 to 2012-13. TLU officially joined the SCAC on July 1, 2013.
TLU and second-year head coach
Mel Dixon open the 2013-14 women's basketball season today with a non-conference road game against Dallas Christian. Game time is set for 6 p.m. at Crusader Gym. TLU will have live video and live stats from tlubulldogs.com for the contest in Dallas.
The Bulldogs return only two of their top five scorers and only one of their top five rebounders from last season.
Last season's leading scorers - post
Katy Scott, post
Chasmin Betters and guard
Italy Taylor - each completed their four years of collegiate eligibility. Scott led TLU in scoring (12.1) and rebounding (7.4). Betters added 11.8 points and 6.4 rebounds per game. Betters also led the team in steals, with 41. Taylor scored 11.3 points per contest and grabbed 4.3 rebounds per game.
The Bulldogs' two returning starters are junior guard
Bianca Casas (Edinburg/Edinburg) and sophomore guard
Taylor Dydalewicz (Dripping Springs/Lake Travis). Casas played in 25 games and made 16 starts. She averaged 2.0 points, 2.0 assists and 1.8 rebounds per game.
Dydalewicz is the leading returning scorer, after averaging 5.9 points in her freshman campaign a year ago. She also averaged 3.0 rebounds and 1.4 assists per game. Dydalewicz was named to the ASC West All-Freshman Team last season.
Junior post
Chelsey Stolle (Falls City/Falls City) and junior shooting guard
Natalie Vella (Corpus Christi/Moody) also return. Stolle played in 24 games last season and averaged 4.9 points and 4.2 rebounds. The 6-foot-4 Stolle blocked 29 shots.
Vella led the team in three-point field goals made in 2012-13. She made 18 of her 45 three-point shots and averaged 2.7 points per game in 21 games played.
Senior point guard
Natasha Benavides (San Antonio/South San) and senior guard
Dalia Camargo (Mission/Mission) each saw significant time in 2012-13 and figure to see even more time in 2013-14. Benavides played in 23 games last year and averaged 9.9 minutes per game. Camargo played in 19 games in 2012-13 and averaged 8.4 minutes per game.
Dixon brought in a recruiting class of eight first-year players and received a junior transfer, guard
Karisa Cantu (San Antonio/MacArthur), who transferred from Schreiner University. Cantu was the ASC West Freshman of the Year for 2011-12 after averaging 8.8 points and delivering 57 assists. She played in nine games last season for Schreiner and averaged 9.4 points and contributed 26 assists.
Guard/forward
Kristen Lye (San Antonio/Clark) and guard/forward
Savannah Hight (San Antonio/Brandeis) are two of the true freshmen expected to see big minutes. In the exhibition game with NCAA Division I Abilene Christian on Nov. 8, Lye scored 15 points and grabbed eight rebounds in 18 minutes of action.
TLU starts the year with four consecutive road games, against Dallas Christian, University of Texas at Dallas, University of Texas-Pan American and Southwestern Adventist.
The Bulldogs' first home game is set for 1 p.m., Nov. 30, against Northwood University. Tip-off is scheduled for 1 p.m.
TLU's first-ever women's basketball game in the SCAC arrives on Jan. 4 with a 4 p.m. home game against Schreiner University.
Women's games in SCAC play will take the late time slot during basketball doubleheaders in the 2013-14 seasons. On week-day conference games, women's games generally will start at 8 p.m., following the men's games at 6 p.m. On Saturday or Sunday contests, the women's games generally will start at 4 p.m., following the men's 2 p.m. contests.
The SCAC Women's Basketball Championship Tournament will be held Feb. 28 through March 2 at Trinity University in San Antonio. All eight women's teams in the SCAC will qualify for the conference tournament. The winner of the conference tournament advances to the NCAA Division III tournament.
2013-14 SCAC Women's Basketball Preseason Poll
No. of Votes 2012-13 SCAC 2012-13 Overall
1. Trinity University 49 (7) 15-0 23-5
2. Southwestern University 43 (1) 12-3 19-8
3. Austin College 34 5-10 12-15
4. University of Dallas 28 4-11 12-15
5. Texas Lutheran University* 23 N/A 8-17
6. Schreiner University* 18 N/A 9-16
7. Colorado College 17 4-11 4-22
8. Centenary College 12 5-10 6-19
Note: First-place votes (in parentheses) are worth seven points, second place worth six points, on down to 7th-place votes being worth one point. Coaches voted for order of finish 1-7, but did not rank their own team.
*Schreiner and Texas Lutheran competed in the American Southwest Conference last season.
