ADRIAN, Mich. – The Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference (WHAC) announced the 2022-23 WHAC Women's Basketball Preseason Coaches poll on Tuesday afternoon. The Siena Heights women's basketball team finished third in the standings with 101 points. The Saints finished the 2021-22 season in the same position with a league record of 15-5.
Siena Heights returns three of last season's top-five scorers to the team this season. They were led by three-time WHAC player of the year, Peyton Banks, who led the Saints with 18.3 points per game and 9.3 rebounds. Banks collected several awards last season, including third-team NAIA All-America, WBCA All-America, and second-team CoSIDA Academic All-America, along with numerous conference awards.
Sha'kyia Parker also returns. The junior guard scored 15.5 points per game in a season that saw her earn a first-team All-WHAC award. Allye Minor returns for her final season. The guard from Bryan, Ohio, averaged 5.9 points per game and was the leading playmaker on the team with 3.7 assists per game.
Another key upperclassman is junior E'Anna Won, who made 31 starts last year and had a stat line of 34.8% shooting, 5.3 PPG, and 3.0 APG. Fellow junior, Eva Alcock saw action in 32 games a season ago. She shot 51.6% and averaged 4.1 points per game. Other third-year players that should make an impact off the bench are Jillian Gelso and Olivia DeLong. Gelso played in 31 games last year and was a threat from deep as she finished the year shooting 42.2% from beyond the arc. DeLong played in 22 games and shot 62.8% from the floor. She scored three points per game and hauled in 2.4 rebounds per contest.
New additions like senior transfer from Indiana Tech, Kayla Hinton, freshmen Lauren DeWolf from Ann Arbor Pioneer, and Anabelle Gogol from Toledo, Ohio, add depth to the SHU bench.
"We are excited to get the season started," said SHU women's basketball head coach Sue Syljebeck. "We still have some work to do, but I feel this group can compete for a championship."
The preseason poll is voted on by the coaches in the league who rank each team in the WHAC from 1-12. Twelve points are given to the team at the top of the list, 11 points to the second-ranked team, and so on to determine the order of the poll.
Last season's WHAC champion Indiana Tech topped the poll with eight of the 11 first-place votes and 118 points. They were followed by last year's runner-up Rochester who collected three first-place votes and finished with 111 points. Siena Heights stayed in third with 101 points before a steep drop in points between third and fourth place, with Lawrence Tech registering 85 points. Aquinas was fifth with 71 points, followed by Concordia with 56. Lourdes was next with 50 points, then Madonna (43), Cornerstone (42), and UM-Dearborn with 36. UNOH finished off the poll with 13 points.
Click here for the WHAC release of the 2022 Women's Soccer Preseason Coaches Poll.
