Since Mandy Pearson took over as the head coach at the University of Minnesota Duluth, the Bulldogs have steadily climbed to the forefront of the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference. Coaches around the league see UMD as one of the teams to beat in 2018-19, slotting the Bulldogs to win the NSIC North Division and fifth overall in their annual preseason poll, released Thursday.
For the second time, UMD was picked to win the north edging out Minnesota State University Moorhead for the preseason divisional crown. It's the Bulldogs first since the conference originally introduced divisions in 2012-13. UMD nabbed two first place votes and 44 points. MSU Moorhead was second in the north with 43 points and four first place votes while the University of Mary was third with 39 points and a pair of first place votes.
The University of Sioux Falls was chosen by the league coaches as the overall favorites in the NSIC for the 2018-19 season. The Cougars, who were also selected as the south division favorites, received nine first place votes and amassed 208 points. MSU Moorhead received three first place votes to rank second with 185 points while Concordia-St. Paul got two first place votes and 178 points to sit third. Augustana garnered the last first place vote and 175 points to rank fourth. The Bulldogs were one point behind Augustana with 174 points.
UMD took another successful stride in the right direction last year finishing 16-11 and 13-9 in conference play – both program bests since 2011-12. The Bulldogs return all five starters and their top six scorers from last season. At the top of that group is Sammy Kozlowski, who was named the Bulldogs' Player to Watch. The senior guard pieced together her second consecutive All-NSIC second team and All-NSIC Defensive team honors last season. Kozlowski was the main scorer and distributor for the Bulldogs as she averaged 11.0 points per game and 5.2 assists per game, second in the conference last season. She was also second in the NSIC last year with 2.1 steals per game.
In addition, Sarah Grow, who was named to the NSIC All-Freshman team in 2017-18, locks down the interior after averaging roughly 10 points, six rebounds and two blocks per contest. Alongside that duo in the starting rotation are savvy veterans Katie Stark and Emma Boehm and sophomore three-point specialist Ann Simonet. Taylor Schneider and Payton Kahl lead the bench rotation and the Bulldogs hope that the nine underclassmen can provide immediate impact.
NSIC coaches rank each team in the NSIC in the overall poll and team from their division in the divisional poll. In the overall poll coaches rank from 1 to 15 with a first place vote receiving 15 points, second place 14, third place 13, etc. Coaches do not rank their own team or vote for their own players.
The regular season champion will be based on the 22-game NSIC schedule. Each team will play teams in their division twice (14) and teams in the other division once (8). An NSIC North and South Division Champion will also be awarded. Divisional standings will also be based on all 22 NSIC contests played. In the case of a tie, co-champions will be awarded. The 16-team NSIC / Sanford Health Women's Basketball Tournament Quarterfinals, Semifinals and Championships are set to take place March 2, 4-5 at the Sanford Health Pentagon in Sioux Falls, S.D. First round games will be played on the campus of the top eight seeds on Wednesday, Feb. 27.
The 2018-19 season gets underway on Saturday, Nov. 17 when the team host to the University of Wisconsin-Parkside at Romano Gymnasium.
