STARKVILLE, Miss. - Two WAC teams, Fresno State and Nevada, have been selected to the preseason Top 25 by the National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA). The Bulldogs are ranked No. 14, while the Wolf Pack came in at No. 23. Meanwhile, Hawai'i and Louisiana Tech received votes in the poll.
Fresno State has been ranked for 26 consecutive seasons and in 240 out of the 266 weekly polls. This is the highest preseason ranking for the Bulldogs since they received a No. 9 ranking in 2001. In 2008, Fresno State reached as high as No. 10, its highest in-season ranking since 2002.
This is Nevada's first-ever preseason ranking. The Wolf Pack finished 2008 ranked No. 20 by USA Softball and No. 21 by the NFCA.
The complete poll is listed below.
2009 NFCA Preseason Poll
| Rank |
Team |
Record |
Pts |
Pvs |
| 1 |
Florida (14) |
70-5 |
728 |
3 |
| 2 |
Arizona State (15) |
66-5 |
691 |
1 |
| 3 |
Alabama |
58-8 |
578 |
4 |
| 4 |
UCLA (1) |
51-9 |
638 |
5 |
| 5 |
Texas A&M |
57-10 |
533 |
2 |
| 6 |
Louisiana-Lafayette (1) |
52-15 |
544 |
6 |
| 7 |
Arizona |
51-19 |
542 |
7 |
| 8 |
Michigan |
52-8 |
527 |
9 |
| 9 |
Northwestern |
50-16 |
511 |
12 |
| 10 |
Oklahoma |
41-14 |
498 |
10 |
| 11 |
Stanford |
49-15 |
456 |
11 |
| 12 |
Tennessee |
50-16 |
302 |
14 |
| 13 |
Houston |
54-11 |
285 |
13 |
| 14 |
Fresno State |
54-13 |
280 |
15 |
| 15 |
DePaul |
51-18 |
279 |
22 |
| 16 |
Missouri |
47-17 |
270 |
19 |
| 17 |
California |
43-27 |
255 |
16 |
| 18 |
North Carolina |
50-12-1 |
222 |
20 |
| 19 |
LSU |
44-18 |
210 |
18 |
| 20 |
Virginia Tech |
49-19 |
201 |
8 |
| 21 |
Washington |
30-25-1 |
193 |
NR |
| 22 |
Georgia |
46-24 |
169 |
17 |
| 23 |
Nevada |
44-18 |
157 |
21 |
| 24 |
Long Beach State |
40-17 |
108 |
23 |
| 25 |
San Diego State |
44-17 |
99 |
24 |
Others receiving votes: UMass 68, Mississippi State 46, Iowa 43, South Florida 42, Hofstra 27, Oklahoma State 19, BYU 17, Hawai'i 15, Notre Dame 12, Nebraska 8, Purdue 8, Central Florida 8, Creighton 6, Auburn 6, Oregon 4, Oregon State 4, Jacksonville State 4, East Carolina 4, Louisiana Tech 3, Texas 2, Chattanooga 2.