NEW ALBANY, Ind. – The IU Southeast women's basketball team was ranked fifth in the 2025 River States Conference Women's Basketball Preseason Coaches' Poll, the RSC announced Wednesday.
 
The Grenadiers are entering their first year under head coach Abby Downard, who comes over from Purdue.
 
IU Southeast returns 10 players from last season, including both of their 2024-25 All-Conference Selections. Jesse Ledgerwood returns for her senior season, coming off a breakout campaign in which she was named to the All-RSC Second Team after averaging 12.1 points per game. Junior Linzie Wernert, who was also named to the All-RSC Second Team last season, returns for her junior year. Wernert has averaged at least 10+ points and 7+ rebounds per game in each of her previous two seasons.
 
Newcomers to watch are Samara Miller from Floyd Central High School as well as Morgan Roberts, who transfers in from Walsh University.
 
The Shawnee State Bears are the preseason favorite in women's basketball in the River States Conference, earning 75 percent of the first-place votes. The poll saw each of the conference's 12 head coaches rank the other member schools in order of predicted finish.

Shawnee State ran the table during the 2024-25 season, going 16-0 in conference play and earning an automatic berth to the NAIA Tournament. The Bears earned the last of their 28 wins in the NAIA Tournament, defeating Loyola New Orleans by a 70-62 score in a first-round contest. Three All-Conference players from last season return in Miyoshi Ellis, Jariah Steele, and Emily Maynard.

The University of Rio Grande earned two of the other three first place votes. The RedStorm won the RSC Tournament title last season for the fourth year in a row, earning the RSC's other automatic berth to the NAIA Tournament. Brescia University got the other first place vote and finished third. The top five was rounded out by fourth place Midway University and fifth place Indiana University Southeast.

The remainder of the poll saw St. Mary-of-the-Woods sixth to finish out the top half of the ranking, followed by Indiana University Kokomo seventh, Indiana University East eighth, Oakland City University ninth, WVU Tech tenth, Kentucky Christian University eleventh, and Indiana University Columbus twelfth.

2025-26 RSC PRESEASON WOMEN's BASKETBALL COACHES' POLL
1. Shawnee State (119 points, 9 first place votes)
2. Rio Grande (111 points, 2 first place votes)
3. Brescia (100 points, 1 first place vote)
4. Midway (87 points)
5. IU Southeast (74 points)
6. St. Mary-of-the-Woods (64 points)
7. IU Kokomo (60 points)
8. IU East (59 points)
9. Oakland City (50 points)
10. WVU Tech (31 points)
11. Kentucky Christian (23 points)
12. IU Columbus (14 points)