Lady Lions Lead Three Top 5 MSC Teams in NAIA Poll

2/11/2026 2:25:11 PM

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – The Freed-Hardeman (Tenn.) Lady Lions sustained their #2 spot ahead of #3 Bethel (Tenn.) and #5 Campbellsville (Ky.) in the NAIA Women's Basketball Coaches' Top 25 Poll, the national office announced Wednesday.

Despite their recent defeat at the hands of the #3 Wildcats, the Lady Lions eked ahead of them in the final voting by eight points. Before that loss, the Lady Lions rattled off five straight Mid-South Conference wins by an average of 13.6 points. For their next match-up, Freed-Hardeman will seek revenge against the biggest mover #13 Lindsey Wilson (Ky.) who they suffered a seven-point loss to on January 15.

Since the prior poll, the Wildcats have gone 3-1 in MSC play. They lost by three in an away contest against (RV) Georgetown (Ky.), but then rebounded with double-digit victories over both (RV) Cumberland and the aforementioned win over Freed-Hardeman.

The Lady Tigers of Campbellsville lost to the biggest mover in the poll, the MSC's own #13 Lindsey Wilson Blue Raiders, but then picked up consecutive 10-plus-point margins of victory against #21 Cumberlands, Georgetown, and Cumberland. Their Whitney Hay was just named NAIA Offensive Player of the Week.

The Blue Raiders have reached 20 wins and have won five straight games, including four MSC contests. The Cumberlands Patriots have lost five straight conference games since the last iteration of the national rating.

The Georgetown Tigers and Cumberland Phoenix both received votes in the ranking.

Dordt (Iowa) was still #1 with 15 first-place votes and 533 voting points. Marian (Ind.) came in fourth with 459 voting points.

The final poll is scheduled to be released on Wednesday, February 25th.

Poll Methodology

  • The national poll is for publicity purposes only and does not influence the selection process for national championship consideration.
  • A panel of head coaches representing each conference and the Continental Athletic Conference (Independents) votes in the poll.
  • The Top 25 teams are selected using a points-based system:
    • 30 points for a 1st-place vote, 29 for 2nd, 28 for 3rd, and so on.
  • The highest and lowest rankings received by each team are discarded before final tallying.
  • Teams receiving only one point are not listed as “receiving votes.”