Softball Picked Fifth In SCAC Preseason Poll
The Ladies were picked to finish fifth in the SCAC Preseason Poll released on Thursday.
SUWANEE, Ga. – In exclusive voting by the league's head coaches, Texas Lutheran once again emerged as the preseason favorite to take home the 2026 Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Softball title.
Last season marked a banner year for the SCAC, marking the second time in the last three years that multiple teams earned a bid into the NCAA Tournament and for the first time since 2012 three conference teams finished with 25-plus victories on the season.
Texas Lutheran, who secured 44 wins, the second most in a single season in SCAC history – highlighted by the program's 11th SCAC regular season title – earned eight first-place votes to finish atop the preseason poll with 118 points. St. Thomas, coming off its second SCAC Tournament title and NCAA Tournament appearance in the last three years after establishing a program record for single-season wins with 34, received two first-place votes and finished second in the preseason rankings with 110 points. Concordia (Tex.), which secured a program record 27 wins in its debut season in the SCAC secured 96 points to finish third in the preseason balloting. McMurry, host of the 2026 SCAC Softball Tournament Championship, was picked fourth by the league coaches with 86 points. Centenary, coming off its most wins (21) since the 2016 season, rounds out the top five with 68 points.
SCAC debutant LeTourneau, coming off its first American Southwest Conference Tournament Title appearance in program history, was slotted in sixth with 66 points. Hendrix, which returns to the SCAC for the first time since the 2012 season and owns an 8-12 all-time record in the SCAC Softball Tournament, finished with 47 total points to sit seventh on the preseason poll. After securing double-digit victories for the seventh time in the last eight full seasons, Schreiner was picked eighth with 41 points.
Rounding out the coaches' selections were Ozarks, which welcomes first-year head coach David Kuhn, with 38 points in ninth. Austin College garnered the final first-place vote and secured 10th with 32 points and Dallas, who secured its most SCAC wins since the 2017 season, finished 11th with 24 points.
TLU made its 11th consecutive trip to the NCAA Division-III Softball Tournament in program history, highlighted by the program's fourth appearance at the Division III Women's College World Series and 11th-straight SCAC Regular Season Championship. As a team, the 2025 TLU softball team once again set a new NCAA Division-III record for stolen bases with 236 on the season, surpassing their previous record of 233 set in 2024, and ranked in the top-three nationally in fielding percentage, ERA, and win-loss percentage. Texas Lutheran returns 12 players from last year's WCWS team, including 2025 Academic All-American Serena Gonzalez and two-time All-American Caelee Clark while welcoming 21 newcomers.
Leading Texas Lutheran from the dugout will be Wade Wilson who enters his 14th year as head coach. He has posted a 499-97 (.837) mark at TLU after leading the Bulldogs to a 44-5 record a year ago. Wilson has guided Texas Lutheran to nine SCAC Tournament titles, earned nine SCAC Coach-of-the-Year accolades and added NFCA Division III National Coaching Staff of the Year to his resume following TLU's run to the National Championship in 2019.
Since the SCAC began sponsoring softball as a championship sport in 1999, eight different teams have claimed conference championships. Texas Lutheran (2014-19, 2021-22, 2024) leads the way with nine followed by Trinity (1999, 2000-02, 2005-07) with seven. DePauw University captured three (2008-09, 2011), Southwestern (2010, 2013) and St. Thomas (2023, 2025) two and Millsaps College (2003), University of the South-Sewanee (2004) and Birmingham-Southern College (2011) have each secured one title.
The 2026 SCAC softball season begins on January 30th, while the first conference series of the season are scheduled for Friday, February 13th. The 2026 SCAC Softball Tournament will be held at the beginning of May on the campus of McMurry University as the double-elimination tournament will begin on Friday, May 1st.
| 2026 SCAC Softball Preseason Coaches' Poll (first-place votes in parentheses, followed by total points) |
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| 1. | Texas Lutheran University (8) | 118 |
| 2. | University of St. Thomas (Tex.) (2) | 110 |
| 3. | Concordia University (Tex.) | 96 |
| 4. | McMurry University | 86 |
| 5. | Centenary College | 68 |
| 6. | LeTourneau University | 66 |
| 7. | Hendrix College | 47 |
| 8. | Schreiner University | 41 |
| 9. | University of the Ozarks | 38 |
| 10. | Austin College (1) | 32 |
| 11. | University of Dallas | 24 |
