Women's Basketball: WVU Ranked No. 15 by CSTV
October 17, 2007 11:25 AM | General
October 17, 2007
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia University’s women’s basketball team has been ranked No. 15 in College Sports Television’s (CSTV) recently released preseason Top 25 poll.
WVU has now been ranked by five major preseason polls heading into the 2007-08 campaign (No. 14 by Athlon, No. 23 in ESPN.com’s early preseason poll in April, No. 24 by Lindy’s and No. 25 in CBSSports.com). The rankings mark the first time during the Mike Carey era that the Mountaineers have received national preseason recognition.
In addition, senior center Olayinka Sanni has been named to CSTV’s preseason All-American Honorable Mention squad. A Chicago Heights, Ill., native, Sanni garnered all-BIG EAST First Team accolades last year and recently played with the Nigerian National team last month in the squad’s bid to qualify for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.
Other BIG EAST schools in the preseason CSTV Top 25 are: No. 3 Rutgers, No. 4 Connecticut, No. 14 Pitt, No. 19 Louisville and No. 24 Notre Dame. Defending national champion Tennessee, WVU’s opponent Nov. 21 in Charleston, W.Va., is ranked preseason No. 1.
The Mountaineers return all five starters from last year’s NCAA second round team that boasted a 21-11 overall mark and an 11-5 BIG EAST record. WVU also boasts the largest senior class in school history (seven) and returns nine letterwinners from last year’s team that held opponents to just 56.3 points-per-game.
WVU also is amongst the national leaders in returning career combined starts; the Mountaineers boast seven players with a combined 364 starts.
Preseason practice is underway with the Mountaineers tipping off the 2007-08 season with an exhibition game against Concord on Sunday, Nov. 4, at 2:00 p.m. in the WVU Coliseum.
