Katie Donovan is on the six-member Preseason Missouri Valley All-Conference Team and Illinois State is picked third in the poll of Missouri Valley coaches, media and media relations personnel.
Donovan, who led the Valley in scoring with a 19.9 average last year, is joined by Northern Iowa post player Alex Cook and four guards: Jenni Lingor and Kari Koch from SMS, Melanie Boeglin from Indiana State and Laura Spanheimer from Creighton.
With 34 of 39 first-place votes in the poll, the SMS Bears are picked to repeat as regular-season champions, followed by Creighton, which finished one-game behind SMS after winning the two previous regular-season titles, and had 3 first-place votes in the 2004-05 preseason poll. The other two first-place votes went to Drake, picked fourth.
Redbird coach Robin Pingeton, the reigning Rawlings Missouri Valley Conference Coach of the Year, is flattered by her teams preseason rating in light of the fact that her team lost point guard Taren OBrien, post player Zora Skrabalova and invaluable bench players Beth Huston and Stacey White to graduation. But Pingeton knows those ratings mean little when players step on the court.
In some respects, Im a little bit surprised, said Pingeton. We lost some great senior players and leadership, so outsiders would think we have some holes to fill. Its exciting to see that our newcomers have so much respect in the conference.
Those preseason rankings are great for the media and fans to talk about, but it is nice to see that respect after finishing fifth last year and being picked ninth. I think it says a lot about what people think about the progress were making at Illinois State.
If Illinois State can finish where the Redbirds are picked, it would mean the highest Redbird regular-season conference finish in eight yearsthe 1996-97 team finished tied for second, a game behind champion Drake. A year ago, the Redbirds were picked ninth and finished fifth in Robin Pingetons inaugural season as head coach.
Preseason All-Conference Team
Melanie Boeglin, Jr., G, Indiana State
Alex Cook, Sr., F, Northern Iowa
Katie Donovan, Sr., F, Illinois State
Kari Koch, Jr., G, SMS
Jenni Lingor, Sr., G, SMS
Laura Spanheimer, Sr., G, Creighton
Preseason Poll
Rank Team (lst place votes) Points
1 SMS (34) 379
2 Creighton (3) 324
3 Illinois State 283
4 Drake (2) 275
5 Indiana State 272
6 UNI 182
7 Bradley 158
8 Wichita State 117
9 Evansville 106
10 Southern Illinois 40
