University of Tennessee Athletics
Lady Vols Fourth In AP Poll
October 30, 2014 | Women's Basketball
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- The Associated Press preseason women's basketball poll was released Thursday, and Tennessee will begin the 2014-15 campaign where it began last year's. The Lady Vols will debut at No. 4 when they play their regular season opener vs. Penn in Knoxville on Nov. 14.
UT has been in every AP preseason poll except for the initial one in 1976-77. That marks a run of 38 years.
Tennessee, which returns four starters and eight active letterwinners from last year's 29-6 squad, was voted behind UConn, South Carolina and Notre Dame in the AP top five, with Texas A&M drawing the No. 5 spot. The Lady Vols were picked to finish second behind South Carolina and just ahead of A&M in the recently-released SEC media poll.
This marks the first time since 2004 that three SEC teams began the season in the AP top five. Tennessee (No. 1), LSU (No. 3) and Georgia (No. 5) took up residence there 10 seasons ago.
In addition to placing three teams in the top five, the league has four squads within the top 15 (Kentucky, No. 11) and five other programs (LSU, Georgia, Vanderbilt, Arkansas and Mississippi State) receiving votes.
In all, the Lady Vols will face eight AP Top 25 teams, including No. 2 South Carolina, No. 3 Notre Dame, No. 5 Texas A&M, No. 6 Stanford, No. 9 Texas, No. 11 Kentucky, No. 20 Oregon State and No. 24 Rutgers.
UT prepares for the upcoming campaign with its lone exhibition game on Nov. 9, when Carson-Newman comes to town for a 2 p.m. contest at Thompson-Boling Arena. The game will be broadcast online via SEC Network +.
2014-15 Associated Press Preseason Women's Basketball Poll
1. Connecticut
2. South Carolina
3. Notre Dame
4. Tennessee
5. Texas A&M
6. Stanford
7. Duke
8. Baylor
9. Texas
10. Maryland
11. Kentucky
12. Louisville
13. North Carolina
14. Michigan State
15. California
16. Nebraska
17. West Virginia
18. DePaul
19. Iowa
20. Oregon State
21. Oklahoma State
22. Dayton
23. UCLA
24. Rutgers
25. Syracuse
