ADRIAN, Mich. – The Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference (WHAC) announced the 2023 Softball Preseason Coaches Poll on Thursday afternoon. The Siena Heights softball team was placed ninth in the 12-team standings after accumulating 51 points. The Saints finished last season with a 10-12 conference record and placed seventh in the standings after the regular season. This year's poll has SHU dropping two spots from that finish.
Siena Heights returns first-team All-WHAC player Courtnee Chappetta. The sophomore from Holland, Ohio, led the Saints with six home runs, 11 doubles, and two triples. She was second on the team with 52 hits, totaling 28 RBIs and a .397 batting average.
SHU also returns Maddie Herrera, Brenna Nurenberg, Lyndsey Pena, and Sam Spicer for their senior seasons. Juniors Julia Hogston and Kat Moreau return with 79 games played last season combined. Sophomore Lauren Dioszegi enter the year with over 30 games played a season ago.
Siena Heights added eight freshmen to add depth to the roster.
"Preseason polls are simply what they are, preseason polls," said softball head coach Laura Klutsarits. "I'm happy to play the role of the underdog and to be overlooked. We didn't have a great end of the season a year ago and lost some talented players to graduation. Where we fall doesn't come as a surprise to me. When we hit the field in the Spring, we look forward to proving the preseason poll wrong."
The preseason poll is voted on by the coaches in the league who rank each team in the WHAC from 1-12. Twelve points are given to the team at the top of the list, 11 points to the second-ranked team, and so on to determine the order of the poll.
2022 WHAC Tournament Champion, Michigan-Dearborn, hopped up to first in the preseason poll with 135 points after receiving six first-place votes. Playoff runner-up, Aquinas advanced to second with 130 points and received three first-place votes. Last year's regular season champion, Madonna, fell to third with 129 points while scooping up the final three first-place votes. Indiana Tech fell to fourth with 98 points. Cornerstone claimed fifth with 93 points, while UNOH was sixth with 79. Concordia (Mich.) and Lawrence Tech claimed the seventh and eighth spots with 73 and 69 points, respectively. The Saints finished nine points better than Lourdes, who had 42 points. Cleary (25 points) and Rochester (12 points) rounded the poll.
Click here for the WHAC release of the 2023 Softball Preseason Coaches Poll.
