(MURRAY, Ky). — The Murray State Racers women’s basketball program has reached a milestone no team in program history has ever achieved, climbing to No. 1 in the CollegeInsider.com Women’s Mid-Major Top 25 poll released Tuesday — the first time the Racers have ever held the top spot in the national ranking.
The historic poll position comes on the heels of Murray State’s Missouri Valley Conference regular-season championship, claimed Saturday afternoon. The Racers, now 26-3 on the season, received 23 first-place votes in this week’s balloting and tallied 754 points to comfortably lead second-ranked Fairfield (725 points) of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.
Perhaps most remarkably, Murray State has already set the all-time program record for wins in a single season — and still has two regular-season games left to play.
The Racers hit the road to close out the regular season, traveling to Chicago to face UIC on Thursday at 7 p.m., before heading to Valparaiso on Saturday for a 1 p.m. tip. From there, attention turns to the Missouri Valley Conference Women’s Basketball Tournament — Hoops in the Heartland — scheduled for next week in Coralville, Iowa.
North Dakota State (26-3) checks in at No. 3 in this week’s poll, followed by South Dakota State (24-6) at No. 4 and Columbia (20-6) at No. 5. The CollegeInsider.com Women’s Mid-Major Top 25 is now in its 16th season.
Murray State’s upcoming schedule: — Thursday, March 5 at UIC, 7:00 p.m. — Saturday, March 7 at Valparaiso, 1:00 p.m. — MVC Tournament (Hoops in the Heartland), Coralville, Iowa, next week
