LILBURN, Ga. – After a 5-0 start to the season Carson-Newman appears at No. 19 in the country in the Women's Basketball Coaches Association poll announced Tuesday afternoon.
The Lady Eagles have won three true road games and two outings on a neutral site including a 90-87 win over Lander, ranked No. 15 at the time and No. 24 in this edition of the poll.
It marks the first time that Mike Mincey's group has been ranked since the 2015-16 season when the unit was ranked 20th and 21st in the top-25 over a two-week period before dropping out.
Carson-Newman is one of seven teams that were not ranked in the preseason to step into the poll. Among teams from the region, fellow South Atlantic Conference school Wingate is sixth and Lander is 24th.
Mincey's unit is ranking 94.4 points per game good for third in the nation. C-N is led by a pair of SAC Players of the Week as Mika Wester (Newport, Tenn.) won the honor in week one. Haris Price (Gatlinburg, Tenn.) picked up the plaudit Monday and was named the Tennessee Sportswriters Association Player of the Week shortly after the poll was released.
In 2015, the Lady Eagles lost at Lincoln Memorial hours after learning about the national ranking. Carson-Newman hosts Shorter Tuesday night in its home opener at 6 p.m. looking to remain undefeated.
The program received votes during the 2014-15 season when the Lady Eagles began the season 11-0 but never cracked the top-25. Prior to that, C-N rose to No. 8 in the land in Jan. 2010 as the 2009-10 team rattled off a program-record 16 straight wins to open the season.
Tip-off Tuesday evening is set for 6 p.m. at Holt Fieldhouse. Broadcast coverage on cneagles.com/live and 106.3 (WPFT-FM, Sevierville) starts at 5:45 p.m. with "The Appalachian Electric Cooperative Countdown to Tip-Off" on the Eagle Sports Network.
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