Women picked second, Eaton Rydalch and Maeda on Preseason Team

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — BYU women’s basketball has been selected to finish second in the 2015-16 West Coast Conference Preseason Poll, as voted by the  league's 10 head coaches. The poll and the preseason all-conference team were announced Monday at Time Warner Cable Sports studios as part of the Fifth Annual West Coast Conference Basketball Tip-Off event, streamed live on TheW.tv. 

Gonzaga was selected as the favorite to win the WCC regular season title. The Bulldogs received six first place votes and a total of 78 points. The Cougars garnered four first place votes and 76 points. Saint Mary's finished third in the preseason poll with a total of 61 points. Last year, BYU was also selected to finish second behind league favorite Gonzaga.

All-American Lexi Eaton Rydalch (20.5 ppg, 40.6 3PFG%, 6.5 rpg) led the WCC in scoring as a junior and collects preseason All-WCC honors for the second straight year and is joined by teammate Kylie Maeda (6.2 ppg, 4.2 assists, 2.4 assist/turnover ratio). The remaining eight players on the Preseason Women’s Basketball Team are Shelby Cheslek and Elle Tinkle (Gonzaga), Hailie Eackles (Pacific), Malina Hood (San Diego), Shannon Mauldin and Lauren Nicholson (Saint Marys), Taylor Proctor (San Francisco), Sophie Taylor (Loyola Marymount). 

BYU returns three starters from last year’s team that won the 2015 WCC Women's Basketball Championshp, competed in the first round of the NCAA tournament and ended the year with a 23-10 record, making it the sixth straight 20-plus win season and the ninth under head coach Jeff Judkins.

The Cougar women play an exhibition game vs. Ft. Lewis, on Nov. 5 before opening up their home slate hosting Utah Valley Unitversity on Friday, Nov. 13 at 3 p.m. 

2015-16 PRESEASON ALL-WEST COAST CONFERENCE TEAM