Wednesday, November 17, 2010

MACON, Ga. – In the first edition of the CollegeInsider.com Women’s Mid-Major Top-25 Poll, two teams from the Atlantic Sun Conference appeared in the rankings as FGCU and ETSU opened the season with wins in the first week of play. FGCU improved to No. 7 in in the poll after initially earning a 14th-place ranking in the preseason poll, while the Bucs jumped from receiving votes in the preseason to No. 16 after posing wins over Richmond and Chattanooga.

The Eagles garnered 482 points after opening the season with a 64-57 home victory against Big East foe, Seton Hall, to extend FGCU’s home-winning streak to 25 games, which is the fourth longest current home winning streak in the nation behind UConn, Stanford and Lehigh. Troy is the next opponent for the Eagles as the two teams square off in Alico Arena on Sunday at 2:05 p.m.

ETSU, who is 2-0 for the first time since the 1999-2000 season, opened the year with a 17-point win (77-60) at Chattanooga last Friday inside McKenzie Arena and then followed their season-opening win up with a 96-84 victory over Richmond Sunday afternoon inside the ETSU/MSHA Athletic Center. The Lady Bucs received 227 votes and are one of three new teams to crack the top 25. The Blue and Gold were the highest team ranked after not being mentioned in the preseason poll as Missouri State enters in 22nd and UC-Davis is 24th. This week, ETSU squares off with Appalachian State on Friday in a home game for the Lady Bucs at 7 p.m.

The CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Top 25 Poll – which is in its first season with women's basketball rankings – will be released every Tuesday during the year.
 
The Mid-Major Poll is made up of teams from the following conferences: America East, Atlantic Sun, Big Sky, Big South, Big West, Colonial, Great West, Horizon, Independents, Ivy, Metro Atlantic, Mid-American, Mid-Eastern, Missouri Valley, Northeast, Ohio Valley, Patriot, Southern, Southland, Southwestern, Summit, Sun Belt, West Coast.