RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. – The Great American Conference released its annual preseason coaches poll for women's basketball on Wednesday, and in that release, the Arkansas Tech women's basketball team was picked to finish the 2025-26 campaign in eighth place.
Harding and Southern Nazarene ties atop the poll with 111 points each, but Harding got the slim edge in first-place votes with five while SNU received four. Southwestern Oklahoma was not far off from those two and totaled 106 points and received the remaining three first-place votes.
Southeastern Oklahoma and Oklahoma Baptist were the next two teams listed. Southeastern was slotted fourth with 79 points while Oklahoma Baptist was fifth with 76. East Central and Northwestern Oklahoma were the last two teams picked ahead of Tech. ECU is sixth with 66 points while NWOSU is seventh with 58.
The Golden Suns totaled 53 points to rank eighth in the poll. Just behind them in ninth-place is Henderson State. HSU garnered 50 total points.
Southern Arkansas (43 points), Ouachita Baptist (24 points) and Arkansas-Monticello (15 points) rounded out the poll.
Last season, the Golden Suns were 7-19 overall and 5-17 in the GAC.
Coming into this season, the Golden Suns return their top-two scorers from a year ago in
AbbiGrace Cunningham (9.7 ppg) and Hayliegh Wyrick (9.6 ppg). They also return a total of six players from last season and will have the return services of fifth-year
ClaraGrace Prater, who played in just one game last year before suffering a season-ending injury.
In addition to the returners, the Golden Suns are set to welcome in the addition of nine talented newcomers. Four of those newcomers are transfers with
Mackenzie Heeke (Howard College),
Perina Leime (Little Rock),
Jadah Pickens (Henderson State) and
Jaiden Smith (Cowley County College).
The remaining five newcomers are all from the prep ranks and four from within the state of Arkansas.
Jessie Lyle (De Queen HS),
Shalyn Lyle (De Queen HS),
Kennedi Scrivner (Nashville HS) and
Logan Young (Dover HS) are from Arkansas while
Maya Bujak (Flower Mound HS) comes to Tech from the Lone Star State.
The Golden Suns will begin their 2025-26 season on Friday, November 14 at home against Texas A&M-International. Tip-off for the season-opener is scheduled for 2 p.m. inside Tucker Coliseum.
