The Great American Conference released its preseason women's basketball poll tabbing the Rangers to finish in 12th place.
Harding narrowly got the nod over Arkansas Tech as the preseason favorites. The Rangers received 11 votes while the next closest team, Southern Nazarene, received 29 votes.
The Rangers will be under the guidance of newly hired head coach Tasha Diesselhorst, who joins the Rangers after a nine-year stint at Pond Creek-Hunter High School. A member of the legendary Turney basketball family, Diesselhorst experienced immense success during her time at Pond Creek-Hunter. Her teams qualified for the Oklahoma State Championships four times under her leadership, winning one state title in 2014 and finishing runner-up in 2016.
Diesselhorst will look to bring her high-tempo guard-oriented offense to the floor this upcoming season for the Rangers. At the forefront of the new Ranger's attack will be senior point guard Ashley Pride, who averaged 8.1 points per game last year. Diesselhorst expects her new style of guard-driven attack to be extremely beneficial to the ultra-quick Pride.
Another familiar face on the court this season will be three-point specialist Relina Johnson, who shot 36.1 percent from behind the arc last season. Diesselhorst pointed out that everyone in the conference knows Johnson can shoot, and emphasizing different areas of her game this off-season will take her to that next level this season.
Diesselhorst inherits a team that finished 2-26, 0-22 in the GAC last season. She touched on a major point she has been pushing on her team since arriving in Alva: confidence.
“They were in a lot of games last year and right now we're just preaching confidence,” Diesselhorst said. “There's a lot of talent out there and we've just got to figure out how to put it all together.”
That new-found self-confidence has already started to come out in pre-season camp in the form of toughness that Diesselhorst has observed in her team. A guard-heavy approach to the roster and game plan has led to the development of an undersized roster, which Diesselhorst says will be counteracted with speed and toughness whenever her team steps onto the court.
That speed and toughness will be on full display when the Rangers open up the season at the MIAA/GAC Challenge in Edmond on Nov. 11 against the University of Central Oklahoma. The Rangers will host their home opener on Nov. 28 at 5:30 p.m. against Oklahoma Panhandle State in the newly renovated Percefull Fieldhouse.
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