Northern Michigan University’s Sarah Newcomer, right, takes a shot against Grand Valley State’s Ellie Droste during their GLIAC game played at Vandament Arena in Marquette on Jan. 30. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)

MARQUETTE — Nobody should be surprised that the women’s basketball team at Northern Michigan University was picked for second place in the coaches’ preseason poll put out by the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.

That’s where the Wildcats finished in the regular season last spring.

And conference coaches in their voting also rubber-stamped most of the past year’s finishes for this year’s predictions when the poll was released last week.

With the top five teams in the same order in the voting that they finished in March, Michigan Tech moved up a spot and Roosevelt down two, while the bottom two, Purdue Northwest and Lake Superior State, also switched up.

All that means is defending NCAA Division II champion Grand Valley State was again picked to be No. 1, where it has finished in the regular season for the past four years.

That powerhouse finished at 38-2 overall and 19-1 in league games, winning their final 13 games that included undefeated runs through the GLIAC Tournament and D-II national tourney.

NMU was No. 2 in the league to the Lakers, finishing at 23-9 overall and 15-5 in the GLIAC season, reaching the semifinals of the conference tourney before bowing out to No. 3 Ferris State 73-66.

By virtue of an excellent regular season, Northern still reached the NCAA tournament and won its opener over former GLIAC member Hillsdale 61-56 before bowing out to another ex-league squad, Ashland, 68-45.

It was the second straight year that the Wildcats won a game in the national event.

For this fall, Grand Valley received what is a perfect 10 first-place votes from the 11 conference coaches — coaches vote for all teams but their own — with Ferris getting the other first-place vote.

GVSU had a perfect 100 voting points, with NMU getting 87 and Ferris 84 for third.

There was a bit of a dropoff to Wisconsin-Parkside landing in fourth with 72 points, then Wayne State fifth with 66.

Another big break came before MTU was sixth with 48 points. The rest included Saginaw Valley State in seventh with 46, Roosevelt eighth with 43, Davenport ninth with 25, LSSU 10th with 21 and Purdue NW 11th with 13.

The Wildcats are in good position to give Grand Valley another challenge for the GLIAC title with a dozen players returning, including senior standouts Jacy Weisbrod and Sarah Newcomer.

Weisbrod earned GLIAC First Team honors last spring, while Newcomer made the Second Team. Five new players, one of them a transfer, join the returnees as they look to make it to the NCAA Tournament for the third straight season.

Head coach Casey Thousand embarks on her fourth season at NMU already with a 60-32 record — a .652 winning percentage — including 38-18 (.679) in the GLIAC.

Story contents based on Northern Michigan University Sports Information press release reviewing the preseason poll. Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee’s email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.