The South Atlantic Conference Announces Women’s Basketball Preseason Poll & All-Conference Teams

ROCK HILL, S.C. (TheSAC.com) – Defending South Atlantic Conference Champion Wingate has been picked to win the 2015 South Atlantic Conference Women's Basketball Championship as voted by the League's head coaches, the League announced today.  The Bulldogs picked up six top votes and received 123 points from the panel.

Wingate turned in an overall record of 24-6 and a 17-5 Conference mark last season and earned the South Atlantic Conference's automatic bid to the 2014 NCAA Women's Basketball Championship.

Coming in at No. 2 in the poll was Newberry, who received three first-place votes and 114 points.  The Wolves finished the 2013-14 season with a 15-12 overall record and a 11-11 record in League play.

At No. 3 in the poll was 2013-14 Regular-Season Co-Champion, Lenoir-Rhyne.  The Bears totaled two top bids and 109 points from the panel.  Lenoir-Rhyne closed out the season at 24-7 overall and 17-5 in the SAC en-route to earning an at-large bid to the 2014 NCAA Women's Basketball Championship.

Carson-Newman landed at the No. 4 slot with 102 points.  The Eagles made a run to the 2014 South Atlantic Conference Women's Basketball Championship after turning in an overall record of 16-14 and 12-10 League record.

Lincoln Memorial rounded out the top five as it garnered 91 points.  The Railsplitters finished the 2013-14 season at 16-11 overall and 15-7 in the South Atlantic Conference.

Anderson came in at No. 6 with 88 points, followed by Catawba with 75 points.  Coker's 67 points was good for No. 8, while Tusculum picked up 54 points to come in at No. 9.  Mars Hill landed at No. 10 with 42 points and Brevard (33 points) and Queens (26 points) finished up the poll.

The South Atlantic Conference also announced its Preseason All-Conference Teams with Lenior-Rhyne's Jazmine Charles headlining the first-team.  A consensus All-American a season-ago, Charles was tabbed the South Atlantic Conference and Southeast Region Player of the Year after averaging 17.4 points per outing.

Haylee Lepaio of Newberry and Kristen McMillon of Tusculum joined Charles on the first-team.  Lepaio posted 18.9 points per game last season to earn first-team All-South Atlantic Southeast Region honors, while McMillon ripped down 11.9 rebounds per game to earn honorable mention All-SAC honors.

Jenni Gust of Lenior-Rhyne, Catawba's Chloe Bully and Sierra Simpson of Anderson rounded out the list of preseason first-team honorees.  Gust earned first-team All-South Atlantic Conference honors last season as she posted 12.5 points per game.  Bully turned in 13.9 ppg last season, while Simpson finished the 2013-14 campaign with 10.0 points per outing.  Bully and Simpson each earned second-team All-SAC accolades last season.

Earning second-team honors were Tanesha Stenson of Coker, Kaitlyn Cupples from Carson-Newman, Lesley Woods (Anderson), Chantal Dunbar from Wingate, Tatum Burstrom of Carson-Newman and Samantha Creed from Newberry.

The 2014-15 Women's Basketball season gets underway on Friday Nov. 14.

Women's Preseason All-Conference

First Team:
Jazmine Charles, Lenoir-Rhyne
Haylee Lepaio, Newberry
Kristen McMillion, Tusculum
Jenni Gust, Lenoir-Rhyne
Chloe Bully, Catawba
Sierra Simpson, Anderson