D3hoops.com Ranks Titans 17th In Preseason Basketball Poll
The reigning Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference champion UW-Oshkosh women's basketball team is ranked 17th in D3hoops.com's 2022 NCAA Division III preseason poll.
UW-Oshkosh produced a 9-2 record last season against conference opponents exclusively due to the novel coronavirus pandemic that canceled the NCAA Division III Championship. The Titans clinched the 2021 WIAC regular season and postseason titles by virtue of a 74-58 victory over UW-Whitewater in the league postseason championship game.
The WIAC titles were UW-Oshkosh's league record extending 14th during the regular season and record tying seventh in the postseason. The Titans, who have reached an unprecedented eight consecutive WIAC Championship finals, won their third straight league postseason title last season and sixth in the past eight years.
Hope College (Mich.) (16-0 record in 2021) is ranked first in the D3hoops.com preseason poll. The Flying Dutch are followed in the rankings by East Texas Baptist University (25-1) in second, Trine University (Ind.) (14-3) in third, Whitman College (Wash.) (9-2) in fourth and Messiah College (Pa.) (11-0) in fifth.
Rounding out the top 10 teams in the preseason poll are Simpson College (Iowa) (12-0 record in 2021) in sixth, Tufts University (Mass.) (0-0) in seventh, John Carroll University (Ohio) (13-2) in eighth, DeSales University (Pa.) (9-0) in ninth and Wartburg College (Iowa) (13-3) in 10th.
UW-Oshkosh opens the season with a pair of exhibition contests at NCAA Division I member University of Wisconsin (5-19 record in 2021) on Oct. 31 and nationally ranked NCAA Division II member Michigan Technological University (20-2) on Nov. 4. The Titans begin the regular season at Finlandia University (Mich.) (5-1) on Nov. 5.
The Titans are scheduled to play two games against teams ranked in the D3hoops.com preseason top 25. UW-Oshkosh travels to 18th-ranked UW-Whitewater on Jan. 5 before hosting the league rival Warhawks on Feb. 26 for the regular season finale in Kolf Sports Center.
UW-Oshkosh 10th-year head coach Brad Fischer welcomes back all five starters and all but one player who averaged more than two minutes per game from last year's team that paced the WIAC with 58 points allowed and 13.7 assists per game, a .455 field goal percentage and a +12.7 scoring margin.
Senior guard Leah Porath, a 2021 First Team All-American and two-time WIAC Player of the Year, headlines the returning Titans. Porath has led the WIAC in scoring the past two seasons on the way to earning Player of the Year honors, averaging 17.5 points per game in 2020 and 18.7 a year ago. Porath also shot 53.4% from the field and 76.9% from the free throw line last season while averaging 6.5 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 1.0 steals per game.
UW-Oshkosh's returning starters from last season also include forward Nikki Arneson and guards Julia Silloway, Abby Kaiser and Kennedy Osterman.
Silloway earned All-WIAC First Team accolades in 2021 while Arneson garnered All-WIAC Honorable Mention recognition the past two years, Kaiser was selected to the All-WIAC Honorable Mention Team a year ago and Osterman was named a 2021 WIAC Co-Newcomer of the Year. Kaiser and Silloway were two of the five members on last season's WIAC All-Defensive Team.
Last season Arneson averaged 9.0 points and 3.6 rebounds per game; Silloway 7.4 points, 3.3 rebounds and 3.2 assists per contest; Kaiser 6.8 points, 3.5 rebounds and 1.4 assists; and Osterman 6.3 points, 3.6 rebounds and 2.2 assists. Silloway paced the WIAC with 35 assists and a 4.38 assist-to-turnover ratio. Osterman collected a team-best 15 steals.
UW-Oshkosh also welcomes back key reserves from last season in guards Jenna Jorgensen and Ava Douglas, who both averaged at least 13 minutes per contest a year ago. Jorgensen finished second on the team in scoring last year at 10.1 points per contest and knocked down a team-leading 17 3-pointers on 40 attempts to finish fourth in the conference with a .425 3-point percentage.
UW-Oshkosh guards Brooke Freitag and Katie Ludwig return after missing last season due to injury.
The Titans are seeking their third straight trip to the Division III Championship and the program's seventh appearance in the last eight national tournaments. UW-Oshkosh, the 1996 national champion and 1995 runner-up, advanced to the third round of the NCAA postseason in 2014, 2017, 2019 and 2020, and reached the second round in 2015 and 2016.