The Great American Conference released its preseason coaches’ poll this week and the SAU Lady Muleriders were picked to finish in a tie for ninth place. Southwestern Oklahoma State received 109 total points and three place votes to sit at first in the poll, above defending champions Harding (106 points, 4 first-place votes).
The Lady Muleriders tied for ninth with Southeastern Oklahoma State on 35 points; both teams ahead of Arkansas-Monticello in 11th (24 points) and East Central (12 points).
The new-look Muleriders, under first-year head coach Lindsey Partridge, open camp today with 11 returning playeers and added five freshmen to a roster that went 8-21 overall last year.
“For all of our preseason practices, we will try to keep our morning practices low impact and compete a little bit tougher in the afternoon practices. We like fundamentals in our program so we’ll be working on the basics to start with,” said Partridge. “We’ll work on implementing our defensive systems the first few practices as well as getting the basics of our offense down. We will compete every single day. It’s going to be fun!”
Before the season starts for the Lady Muleriders, they will be hosting a Blue and Gold Scrimmage on Aug. 29 at 7 p.m., which will be open to the public. They will not play at home again until Sept. 26.