Rio women picked No. 2 in RSC poll
The University of Rio Grande was picked second in the 2025 RSC Preseason Coaches' Poll announced last Wednesday by the River States Conference office.
Each of the conference's 12 head coaches rank the other member schools in order of predicted finish.
The RedStorm earned two of the other three first place votes and tallied 111 points altogether. Head coach David Smalley's team won the RSC Tournament title last season for the fourth year in a row, earning one of the RSC's two automatic berths to the NAIA Tournament.
Rio, which has won three of the last four regular season conference titles and reached the RSC tournament finals for five straight years, has sophomore guard Payton Johnson (Peebles, Ohio) and the senior duo of Marina Garcia Perez (Leon, Spain) and Marlee Grinstead (Albany, Ohio) among its returnees.
Shawnee State University, which ran the table during the 2024-25 season by going 16-0 in conference play and earning the league's other automatic berth to the NAIA Tournament, grabbed the top spot in the voting with nine first-place nods and 119 points.
The Bears earned the last of their 28 wins in the NAIA tourney, defeating Loyola New Orleans, 70-62, in a first-round contest. Three All-Conference players from last season return in Miyoshi Ellis, Jariah Steele and Emily Maynard.
Brescia University got the other first place vote and finished third with 100 points. The top five was rounded out by fourth place Midway University (87 pts.) and fifth place Indiana University Southeast (74 pts.).
The remainder of the poll saw St. Mary-of-the-Woods sixth (64 pts.) to finish out the top half of the ranking, followed by Indiana University Kokomo (60 pts.) in seventh, Indiana University East eighth with 59 points, Oakland City University (50 pts.) ninth, WVU Tech in 10th with 31 points, Kentucky Christian University (23 pts.) at 11th and Indiana University Columbus in 12th with 14 points.
The River States Conference basketball season will begin on Friday, Oct. 24, when Kentucky Christian travels to the University of the Cumberlands. Two other schools - IU Columbus and St. Mary-of-the-Woods, will also play during the opening weekend.
The first scheduled conference game is on Dec. 2 when Rio Grande hosts Midway.
The RSC Tournament is scheduled for Feb. 25, 28 and March 3, with the higher seed hosting each game of the tournament.