Belmont, coming off its appearance in the Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament (WBIT) championship game with three returning starters, topped the preseason Missouri Valley Conference 2025-26 preseason poll in a vote consisting of head coaches, sports information directors and media members. 

Murray State, the reigning MVC regular season and tournament champions, came in at a close second, with Illinois State and Drake also receiving first-place votes. The playing field is also a little smaller, dropping from 12 teams to 11 after Missouri State’s departure for Conference USA.

MVC preseason poll top four

1. Belmont (25) — 446 points

2. Murray State (13) — 436 points

3. Illinois State (2) — 387 points

4. Drake (4) — 371 points

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In the second year of its three-year rotation with the Ford Center in Evansville, Indiana, and Vibrant Arena at The MARK in Moline, Illinois, the 2026 MVC Women’s Basketball Tournament will be held at Xtream Arena in Coralville, Iowa, from March 12-15.

The 2026 tournament will be the 18th consecutive neutral-site women’s tournament for the MVC. 

“I think what’s amazing about the Missouri Valley is, not only are we choosing different venues to be able to play, but the product on the floor, it keeps getting better, and we keep sending phenomenal teams to be able to go represent ourselves in the NCAA Tournament,” Drake head coach Allison Pohlman said during a virtual media day Oct. 16. 

With the NCAA season set to begin on Nov. 3, here is a look at each team in the MVC.

Belmont

2024-25 record: 26-13 (15-5 MVC, 3rd in conference)

Head coach: Bart Brooks (9th season)

Belmont head coach Bart Brooks has again been named to the preseason watch list for the Kathy Delaney-Smith Mid-Major Coach of the Year Award presented by Her Hoop Stats. Brooks will look to his three returning starters — graduate guard Tuti Jones, junior guard Jailyn Banks and senior guard Emily La Chapell — to lead a team that welcomes seven new players.

The trio started in all 39 games last season, each averaging about 30 minutes per game. As a sophomore, Banks led the team in scoring with 503 total points, averaging 12.9 points per game. She also led the team in assists with 129. Jones averaged 10.2 points per game with 104 total assists and a team-leading 89 steals. La Chapell logged the most minutes with 1,171, averaging 8.5 points per game with a total of 48 steals and 13 blocks.

“We were extremely blessed that we got to keep our roster. Everyone came back this year,” Brooks told the media. “We’ve got a lot of experienced players who have played a lot of ball together, and that’s usually been the magic in our recipe — that our older players are leading our younger players and teaching the new players how we do things.”

Brooks again has scheduled a tough nonconference slate, facing six NCAA Tournament teams from a season ago — No. 6 Oklahoma (Nov. 3), No. 8 Tennessee (Nov. 13), Ohio State (Nov. 24), Princeton (Dec. 6), No. 24 Kentucky (Dec. 14) and No. 7 Duke (Dec. 20). 

“We’ll find out quickly what we need to fix, what we need to adjust to be able to compete at that level,” Brooks said. “For me, there’s nothing better than those early lessons to try to get your team pointed in the right direction for a really challenging conference schedule.

“I think going into every year, we’re trying to figure out a way to put our team in a position to earn an at-large tournament bid, and that we’re not dependent on having to play great at the end of the year in a three-game back-to-back-to-back scenario to have a chance to compete in the NCAA Tournament,” he added. 

Bradley

2024-25 record: 14-19 (7-13 MVC, 9th in conference)

Head coach: Kate Popovec-Goss (4th season)

With the most returners of any team in the MVC, Bradley head coach Kate Popovec-Goss hopes to continue the upward trend of the program.

“I think it’s exciting to bring back 10 [players],” she told reporters. “I just think it speaks to what we’re building. I do think it is an indication of just where we’re trending. Culture is a buzzword, but just what our locker room was like, I think the girls that we have are excited to keep building on what we did last year. Obviously, it was a big turnaround for us, and our margin of loss was like four points a game. So we were always that team that was right there, and now it’s time to get there.”

Popovec-Goss has been particularly impressed with fifth-year guard/forward Kaylen Nelson, who started in 31 of 33 games last season, averaging 8.3 points per game with 28 total steals. Her junior year, after transferring from Old Dominion, was cut short to an injury in the fifth game of the season against Bethune-Cookman.

“Last year she was coming off an ACL in real time, she only had 25 practices before the season, so throughout the year, it was her kind of trying to find her footing,” Popovec-Goss said. “We really challenged her this offseason. She’s at her best body composition she’s ever been at in her career. She’s jumping the highest she’s ever jumped. She’s in great shape, and I think her game has really elevated, and so is her mentality. She’s really embracing being a leader.”

Senior guard Soleil Barnes led the team last season with 15.5 points and 4.7 rebounds per game with a total 88 assists and 40 steals.

Drake

2024-25 record: 22-12 (15-5 MVC, 4th in conference)

Head coach: Allison Pohlman (5th season)

Despite graduating two-time MVC Player of the Year and All-American Katie Dinnebier, Drake head coach Allison Pohlman is excited about the upcoming season.

“I think the things that we’re doing culturally, and what we’ve done from the basketball standpoint, will remain consistent,” she said to the media. “What we’ve done here at Drake for the past almost 15 years has been kind of a buy-in to a half-court, up-tempo sort of offense, both in the full and in the half court. And so none of those principles will necessarily change.”

While no player in particular has stood out yet to Pohlmann, proving they can step into Dinnebier’s leadership role, the entire team is coming together. 

“On a day-to-day basis, what we’re seeing is some really fantastic glimpses, whether it’s upperclassmen or our freshmen or even second-year players,” she said. “That leadership takes a little bit of time to be able to foster. So we’re a work in progress, definitely on the leadership sort of side, but I would definitely say it’s by committee.”

Senior guards Abbie Aalsma and Shannon Fornshell are the two returning starters from last year. Aalsma, who averaged 9.7 points per game last season, stepped up her production with 19 points Oct. 29 in Drake’s 77-57 exhibition win over Dakota Wesleyan. She added five steals, four rebounds and two blocked shots. Fornshell averaged 4.8 points and 2.9 rebounds per game last season.

Pohlmann and the Des Moines-based Drake team are excited about playing the MVC Tournament in their home state of Iowa. 

“I think for the Missouri Valley Conference, what’s extremely exciting is we’re going to be able to hop into Coralville and be embraced by a number of women’s basketball fans,” Pohlmann said. 

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Evansville

2024-25 record: 7-25 (3-17 MVC, 12th in conference)

Head coach: Robyn Scherr (5th season)

Although 11 of Evansville’s 13 players are underclassmen, head coach Robyn Scherr is confident in what the team learned last season.

“We’re still a really young team, but super thrilled that the six of them that were freshmen last year are now returning as sophomores,” Scherr said to reporters. “There couldn’t be a better group to build around, and they’re extremely talented, but more so than that, they just love basketball. They’re tough kids. They love being in the gym. They’re super competitive.”

Sophomore guards Camryn Runner and Avery Kelley, who both played in every game last season, are emerging as leaders, as well as transfer junior forward Mireia Mustaros. Runner, who started all 32 games last season, averaged 15.5 points and 4.8 rebounds per game with total 89 assists, 34 steals and 23 blocks. Kelley, who started in two of 29 games played, averaged 6 points and 2.9 rebounds per game with 65 assists and 21 steals. Mustaros, who transferred from junior college Odessa College, averaged 21.4 minutes, 5.1 points and 4.4 rebounds per game and helped the Wranglers gain a berth in the NJCAA Region V Women’s Basketball Tournament

“There’s a lot of potential there, and I really believe in them, and they’re going to have their ups and downs with that this season just due to their age. Sometimes you just can’t speed up that process,” Scherr added.

Illinois State

2024-25 record: 24-13 (14-6 MVC, 5th in conference)

Head coach: Kristen Gillespie (9th season)

Returning eight players from last year’s roster, Illinois State was picked to finish in the MVC’s top three in the preseason poll.

Head coach Kristen Gillespie said this team is very different from last year’s team, which was in the “top 10 in every offensive category in the country” but with a defense that was “absolutely horrific.”

“We are going to be really good offensively,” she told reporters. “It’s just our backcourt is new, and we’re young, but we’re talented. We don’t have sweat equity yet.”

Gillespie will look to redshirt senior forward Addison Martin, senior guard/forward De’Shawnti Thomas and junior forward Nevaeh Thomas for leadership to help guide what she says is “by far our most talented freshman class.”

“Addie is already playing with that sense of urgency you usually see from seniors around January or February,” Gillespie said of Martin, who averaged 11.3 points and 5.6 rebounds per game last season.

Neveah Thomas averaged 12.1 points and 7 rebounds per game with a total 91 assists and 31 blocks. De’Shawnti Thomas played in just 21 games last season after an injury sidelined her the entire 2023-24 year due to injury at Old Dominion.

In addition to finding leadership from her veterans, Gillespie is also eager to see what sophomore Trista Fayta brings as she takes over the point guard role.

“She has done a really nice job, not only improving her game — she’ll be one of the most improved players in the Valley — but just taking ownership of that spot,” Gillespie said.

Fayta showed her promise Oct. 26 with 17 points in 33 minutes in the Redbirds’ 89-46 exhibition win over Illinois Wesleyan.

Indiana State

2024-25 record: 4-28 (2-18 MVC, 11th in conference)

Head coach: Marc Mitchell (2nd season)

In his second year as Indiana State head coach, Marc Mitchell will start with a clean slate as his entire roster and most of his coaching staff are new. 

“Some days we take two steps forward, and then the next day, we’re taking three steps back,” Mitchell said to media. “Having all these new kids here and trying to mesh them all together is a challenge. I have a new coaching staff. The only people back from last season is myself, Coach [Jason] Pruitt and one of my managers, Aiden Thacker.”

The Sycamores graduated three seniors and lost the rest of the team to the transfer portal. Mitchell hit the transfer portal to fill his roster, which has no incoming freshmen. Senior guard Kennedy Claybrooks from Southeast Missouri State, sophomore forward Amerie Flowers from McLennan Community College and sophomore guard Tierney Kelsey from Jackson State were named to the 2025-26 MVC Players to Watch list.

Claybrooks started all seven games she appeared in at Southeast Missouri State before missing the remainder of the season, averaging 32.6 minutes, 9.3 points, 5 rebounds, 4.4 assists and 2.4 steals per game. Flowers appeared in all 32 games at McLennan, starting 15 and averaging 6.8 points and 4.3 rebounds per game. Kelsey appeared in 30 games at Jackson State, averaging 14.7 minutes and 3.6 points per game.

“The athleticism, the tenacity that these young ladies have that we brought in, I’m really excited about that,” he said. “We’re  just building together as one unit.”

In coaching up a completely new group of players, Mitchell admits his coaching style is not for everyone, but he stands by it.

“I am who I am,” he said. “You get on board or you got to ship out immediately, so you’re in or you’re out. That’s how I coach. I’m very intense. I’m extremely vocal. I get after my kids. You got to have tough skin to be able to play for me. Our style is going to be up-tempo, pressure defense. We’re going to use our athleticism. We want to create havoc on defense, and we want to get out and run.”

Murray State

2024-25 record: 25-8 (16-4 MVC, 1st in conference)

Head coach: Rechelle Turner (9th season)

Murray State head coach Rechelle Turner is trying to balance the excitement of winning the MVC’s regular-season and tournament championships with preparing her team for the upcoming season.   

“Coming off a championship season is kind of new to me and our staff and our program,” she told reporters. “So, we spent some time trying to figure out how to cherish the moment and be grateful, but also make sure that our players understand it’s a reset, and nothing that they did well last year is going to help them this year, and nothing that we did bad is going to carry over. It’s a brand new start.” 

Murray State’s all-time leading scorer and rebounder, Katelyn Young, will not suit up for the Racers this year, as she graduated, but she has stuck around and joined the coaching staff. 

“It’s just unbelievably great for our program, not only because of what she brings with her basketball IQ, but because of being such a great human,” Turner said of adding Young to her staff. “She was late getting to us because of her pro career in Australia, but less than two weeks after she got here, we could already see the difference that she was making with our post players and our team in general.”

The team will be led by Indiana transfer junior forward Sharnecce Currie-Jelks and junior guards Haven Ford, Halli Poock and Keslyn Secrist, who were all named to the 2025-26 MVC Women’s Basketball Players to Watch list. Ford and Poock have also been named to the 2026 Becky Hammon Mid-Major Player of the Year Watchlist, presented by Her Hoop Stats.

Ford, who broke the Murray State single season record for assists with 170 last season, averaged 14.9 points per game and was named All-MVC Second Team. Poock was also named All-MVC Second Team and ranked in the top five in the MVC in points per game (16.7) and assists per game (4.5). Secrist, a transfer from Indiana State, scored a career high 26 points against the Racers in 2025.

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Southern Illinois

2024-25 record: 4-26 (2-18 MVC, 12th in conference)

Head coach: Kelly Bond-White (4th season)

After her team placed last in the conference standings last year, Southern Illinois head coach Kelly Bond-White wants them to build on what they learned — both good and bad. 

“We first talked about turning the page and not turning the page just to forget,” she said to media. “But turning the page has been a fresh opportunity, an opportunity to learn from mistakes from last year, learn from positive experiences that we went through in terms of resiliency and staying together with that, but just having a fresh opportunity for us.”

She said the team is focused on improving in four areas: raising field goal percentage, limiting live turnovers, reducing paint points, and pursuing the ball and boxing out.

Junior guards Tkiyah Nelson and Kayla Cooper, the two returners who have played the most minutes, are the team’s internal leaders who lead by example, Bond-White said. 

Nelson, who started in 29 of 30 games last season, had a career-high 27.8 minutes per game, averaging 6.5 points, 4.1 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.6 steals per game. Cooper, who started her career at the University of Oklahoma, averaged 9.8 points, 2.6 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 1.4 steals across a team-high 32 minutes-per-game last season.

“The humility of those two to understand that we got to get better … we’ve lost a lot, but at the same time, we understand that we need pieces in here, because we don’t want this to be a long building project. We want this now,” Bond-White said. 

University of Illinois Chicago (UIC)

2024-25 record: 15-18 (10-10 MVC, 7th in conference)

Head coach: Ashleen Bracey (4th season)

UIC head coach Ashleen Bracey is used to welcoming new faces each year, and this season is no different.

“10 new [players], which to most people, you’re like, ‘Holy crap,’” she told reporters. “But for me, that’s kind of been the story of my career here at UIC thus far, kind of replacing rosters from year to year. I think we did a really good job in the portal in terms of replacing some of the experience that we were losing.” 

Bracey pointed out senior guard Jessica Carrothers from IU Northwest, who led all of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) in scoring with 31.4 points per game, and senior forward Amelia Strong from Niagara, who averaged 9.7 points and 9.9 rebounds per game. 

She will also look to returners sophomore guard Chantrel “TuTu” Clayton, graduate guard Sara Zabrecky and junior forward Julia Coleman, who transferred from Texas State and redshirted last season. 

Clayton started in one of 21 games played last season, dishing 26 total assists, averaging 2.9 points and 10.3 minutes per game. Zabrecky competed in and started in all seven games before an injury ended her season last year. Her junior and senior years, after transferring from St. John’s, she started in 55 of a total 70 games played and was the team’s top 3-point shooter both seasons. During her freshman year at Texas State, Coleman played in 27 games, averaging 11 minutes and 6.2 points per game .

“I think we’re going to look a lot different than the UIC teams that you’re used to seeing, definitely heavy on the defense, because that’s just important to me as a coach,” Bracey said. “But I think we’re going to be able to score the ball in some different ways than we were in previous years.”

University of Northern Iowa (UNI)

2024-25 record: 17-17 (11-9 MVC, 6th in conference)

Head coach: Tanya Warren (19th season)

With seven underclassmen — including five freshmen — University of Northern Iowa head coach Tanya Warren has one of the youngest teams in her 19-year tenure, but she’s happy to embrace it.

“I’m extremely excited that the canvas is clear. This team gets to create their own picture, so to speak,” she said to reporters. 

Although guard Taryn Wharton is a senior, she also gets to write her own story this season, taking over as point guard after playing behind two-time All-MVC First Team point guard Maya McDermott for three years. 

Wharton started three of the 34 games she played last season, averaging 7.2 points, 2.4 rebounds and 1.6 assists per game.

“Taryn has had a great summer,” Warren said. “She’s a terrific leader. She’s a really good defender, and she’s gotten a lot better offensively. She has done a terrific job in taking the reins.”

Warren will also look to senior forward Ryley Goebel who started in all 34 games last season, averaging 10.2 points, 5.7 rebounds, 2.3 blocks and 2.1 steals per game. Junior guard Jenna Twedt, who transferred from Kirkwood Community College, averaged 16.1 points per game and was named Iowa Community College Athletic Conference (ICCAC) Player of the Year.

The Panthers have another challenging non-conference schedule to prepare them for MVC play, including matchups against Iowa (Nov. 16), Creighton (Nov. 20), South Dakota State (Dec. 10) and Iowa State (Dec. 14). 

“We’ve always tried to schedule a very hard, tough nonconference [schedule] because we do believe that it does prepare us for a very, very good Missouri Valley Conference,” Warren said. “It’s nothing that we’re ever going to shy away from. We’re always going to do that. And it helps when you have Iowa and Iowa State, Creighton, South Dakota State — those schools that are always willing to play home and home.”

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Valparaiso 

2024-25 record: 13-19 (9-11 MVC, 8th in conference)

Head coach: Courtney Boyd (1st season)

First-year Valparaiso head coach Courtney Boyd wants her team to be fun to watch as she tries to establish herself with the program.  

“You can’t be behind the times,” Boyd said to media. “If women’s basketball is on the rise, we can’t be a boring team to watch. So, we’re going to get up and down the floor. Our transition, hopefully, is the frontrunner of our offense, and so that will be something that we’re focusing on.”

With a mostly new coaching staff, Boyd faces the tall task of molding the staff, returning players and newcomers together. 

“The returners, they’re doing a pretty good job,” Boyd said. “It’s a completely different style of play, and not right or wrong, it’s just different. And so for them to buy into what we’re trying to do, honestly, it’s something that they had to see success in.”

Returners include senior guards Maci Rhoades and Fiona Connolly, redshirt sophomore guard Raeven Raye-Redmond, sophomore guard Mor Shabtai, redshirt junior guard Bella Swedlund, junior forward Kayla Preston and sophomore forward Kylie Waytashek.

Rhoades started all 31 games last season, averaging 6.5 points and 3 rebounds per game. Connolly also played in all 31 games, averaging 3.5 points and 2.2 rebounds per game and ranked second on the team with 60 total assists.

The Beacons aim to remain competitive by scheduling a tougher nonconference schedule to prepare for MVC play. This includes a contest at Iowa State on Nov. 13 in Boyd’s home state.

“The top five or six teams in our conference are competing against those teams and that talent every single night,” Boyd said. “So for us to be able to go up against a top 15 team, it’s going to be an eye opener. “It’s going to give us a real test of where we are, what we aren’t able to do yet, where we need to go, and then some things that are hopefully looking pretty decent.”