Women’s Basketball Predicted to Finish Fourth in Coaches Poll

Marie Gulich and Mikayla Pivec represented the Beavers down at Pac-12 Media Day earlier this week with Coach Scott Rueck. It was there that the preseason Coaches Poll was announced. Let’s take a look:

As you can see, UCLA ranks at number one, likely due to the return of their dynamic duo in Jordin Canada and Monique Billings. Stanford comes in at number two because, well, they’re Stanford. Oregon follows at number three after a run to the Elite Eight last year behind a young talented core led by Freshman of the Year Sabrina Ionescu.

The Beavers were voted to place fourth this year. This absolutely makes sense on paper. They lost an All-American in Sydney Wiese and the conference’s Defensive Player of the Year in Gabriella Hanson. They also return just three upper class-women in Marie Gulich, Katie McWilliams, and Taylor Kalmer.

Scott Rueck has had a knack for getting his team to perform above expectations since he became Oregon State’s head coach. This was evident last year when the team was expected to finish fifth according to the coaches poll, but instead finished first.

The season tips off November 10th against North Dakota at Gil Coliseum.