RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. – The Great American Conference announced the women's basketball preseason poll on Thursday. The poll, voted on by league coaches, had SWOSU picked 11th.

Head Coach Jeff Zinn enters year two at the helm of the program with his first full year of recruiting now under his belt. He brings on new assistant coach James Bagwell who comes over from the men's basketball team and replaces Heather Davis who left for the head coaching job at Rogers State.

After an 8-19 finish last season, the two look to guide the Lady Dawgs back to the GAC Tournament after missing it for the first time since the conference's inception.

Only three returners are back for the Lady Bulldogs, though one of them is leading scorer and assister Averi Zinn. An All-GAC selection a year ago, she averaged 14 points and 3.4 assists per game, both top-10 in the GAC. Layni Zinn, the other returning starter, averaged 8.4 points and 3.2 rebounds per game..

The 2023-24 season brings a lot of new faces to SWOSU. 10 new players highlight the revamped roster from every level of competition – high school all the way up to Division I. That signing class can be read about here. 

The season starts on November 10 at the GAC/MIAA Crossover against Washburn. The first home game will be days later, November 14, versus the Oklahoma City University. Conference play begins at the end of the month, November 30, against Oklahoma Baptist in Shawnee.
 
GAC Preseason Poll Results
 

Team	Total Points (1st)
Southern Nazarene	117 (7)
Harding	115 (5)
Oklahoma Baptist	90
Arkansas Tech	88
Henderson State	81
Ouachita Baptist	64
Northwestern	54
Southeastern	47
Southern Arkansas	41
East Central	39
SWOSU	35
Arkansas-Monticello	21