St. Paul, Minn. – The office of the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference has
announced that the defending National Champions, Minnesota State women’s basketball
team, is the top-ranked team in the NSIC preseason coaches poll for the second straight
season.

The Mavericks, who finished with a 32-2 record last season on the way to their first NCAA
national championship. MSU also earned its first conference championshp since the 1985-
1986 season.

Concordia-St. Paul ranked second and Augustana ranked third both received two first place
votes. MSU Moorhead and Winona State round off the top five. Other former NSIC rivals
Minnesota Duluth and St. Cloud State were ranked #6 and #8, respectively.
MSU returns two key seniors, guard Tiffany Moe and forward Liz Trauger. “Tiffany Moe
might be one of the best floor leaders in the country, she will look to step up her offensive
game this year, and Liz Trauger is our best back-to-the-basket player, she should be close
to a double-double each night”, says head coach Pam Gohl.

Rank	Team	1st Place Votes	Points
1	Minnesota State	9	176
2	Concordia-St. Paul	2	154
3	Augustana	2	145
4	MSU Moorhead		142
5	Winona State	1	140
6	Minnesota Duluth		131
7	Wayne State		111
8	St. Cloud State		99
9	University of Mary		96
10	Northern State		73
11	Southwest Minn. St.		66
12	Minnesota, Crookston		55
13	Bemidji State		37
14	Upper Iowa		32

MSU begins its 2009-10 campaign Nov. 17, as it hosts Dana College at 7 p.m. in Taylor Center.