Women's Basketball receives votes in WBCA Preseason Top 25 Coaches Poll
By Marissa Myers
| WBCA NCAA III Top 25 Poll – Preseason - Oct. 28 |
ADA — The Ohio Northern women's basketball team received votes in the 2025-26 WBCA NCAA Division III Preseason Top 25 Coaches Poll, which was released on Tuesday.
The Polar Bears received 13 points in the poll.
Defending national champion NYU is the top-ranked team in the poll, receiving 249 points and nine of the 10 first-place votes.
Smith (Mass.), Bowdoin (Maine), Scranton (Pa.) and UW-Oshkosh (Wis.) round out the top five.
Only one other Ohio Athletic Conference school, Baldwin Wallace (No. 16t) is included in the poll.
The Polar Bears finished 19-8 overall and 14-4 in the OAC in 2024-25. They finished second in the OAC Regular Season standings and were runner-ups in the OAC Tournament last season.
ONU opens its 2025-26 season on Nov. 14-15 at the Washington & Jefferson Tip-Off under sixth-year head coach Mark Huelsman.
WBCA NCAA Division III Top 25 - Preseason - Oct. 28, 2025
| Rank | School (No. 1 votes) | 2024-25 Record | Points | 2024-25 Final Rank |
| 1. | NYU (9) | 31-0 | 249 | 1 |
| 2. | Smith (Mass.) (1) | 31-3 | 235 | 2 |
| 3. | Bowdoin (Maine) | 29-1 | 220 | 4 |
| 4. | Scranton (Pa.) | 29-2 | 218 | 7 |
| 5. | UW-Oshkosh (Wis.) | 27-5 | 199 | 3 |
| 6. | Washington & Lee | 25-5 | 147 | 18 |
| 7. | Christopher Newport (Va.) | 26-2 | 143 | 14 |
| 8t. | Catholic (D.C.) | 24-5 | 127 | 22t |
| 8t. | Gettysburg (Pa.) | 28-3 | 127 | 9 |
| 10. | Johns Hopkins (Md.) | 24-5 | 115 | 13 |
| 11. | Messiah (Pa.) | 25-3 | 109 | 20 |
| 12. | Randolph-Macon (Va.) | 29-2 | 100 | 16 |
| 13. | Illinois Wesleyan | 28-2 | 97 | 6 |
| 14. | Wartburg (Iowa) | 26-3 | 84 | 10 |
| 15. | East Texas Baptist | 23-5 | 78 | 22t |
| 16t. | Baldwin Wallace | 29-2 | 75 | 11 |
| 16t. | Gustavus Adolphus (Minn.) | 29-2 | 75 | 8 |
| 16t. | Whitman (Wash.) | 27-2 | 75 | 12 |
| 19. | Washington-St. Louis (Mo.) | 16-9 | 56 | NR |
| 20. | Trine (Ind.) | 25-4 | 53 | 17 |
| 21. | Calvin (Mich.) | 18-11 | 48 | NR |
| 22. | Elizabethtown (Pa.) | 23-5 | 46 | 21 |
| 23. | SUNY-Cortland (N.Y.) | 25-4 | 45 | NR |
| 24. | UW-Whitewater (Wis.) | 24-7 | 44 | 19 |
| 25. | Trinity (Conn.) | 19-9 | 43 | NR |
Others receiving votes: Hope (21-5) 41; Montclair State (24-5) 38; Texas Lutheran (24-5) 34; Bethel (MN) 28; Bates (17-10) 26; Ohio Wesleyan (25-4) 25; UW-Stout (23-8) 24; UMass-Dartmouth (23-5) 22; Washington and Jefferson (24-5) 22; Transylvania (22-6) 18; John Carroll (19-7) 17; Hardin-Simmons (19-8) 16; Coe (20-7) 14; Merchant Marine (24-3) 14; Ohio Northern (19-8) 13; Mary Hardin-Baylor (17-9) 12; Brooklyn (17-12) 10; Colby (15-11) 10; Colorado College (23-4) 10; DePauw (20-7) 10; Western New England (25-4) 8; Southern Maine (18-10) 6; Linfield (19-7) 5; McMurry (23-6) 5; SUNY Geneseo (24-7) 4; UW-La Crosse (17-12) 4; Ithaca (19-8) 3; Amherst (20-8) 2; McDaniel (18-10) 2.