photo by: Kim North

The annual Mountain East Conference preseason women’s basketball media day was held Tuesday inside WesBanco Arena in downtown Wheeling. Pictured are Wheeling University head coach Ella Skeens, left, and West Liberty University head coach Kyle Cooper. The Hilltoppers and Cardinals tied for No. 8 in the poll.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the second of a two-part series about the Mountain East Conference Basketball Preseason Poll, as voted upon by conference head coaches. Today features the women’s rankings.

WHEELING – As was the case in the Mountain East Conference men’s basketball preseason poll, Fairmont State was atop the women’s poll. However, the defending MEC regular season and tournament champion, wasn’t a unanimous pick like the men.

During Tuesday’s MEC Basketball Media Day inside the lobby of WesBanco Arena, the Falcons received seven first-place votes in accumulating 94 points during balloting by the league’s 11 head coaches. W.Va. Wesleyan and Glenville State each garnered one first-place mention in finishing second and third, respectively, with 79 and 78 points. Charleston was fourth with 77 points despite picking up a pair of first-place votes.

Locally, West Liberty and Wheeling were tied for eighth with 39.

The Cardinals are one of two women’s programs with new head coaches, the other being W.Va. State. Taking over for the Cardinals is Ella Skeens who spent the last two seasons as both a graduate assistant and assistant coach under former head coach Anna Kowalska. During her time as an assistant, Skeens worked with the team’s guards, helping Kenzie Dalton earn MEC Defensive Player of the Year honors.

“I have been fortunate to have grown in this program, to have had a great mentor in Anna Kowalska, and to have people around me who truly believe in me,” Skeens told the gathering. “We talked about stepping into the moment this preseason, we have challenged our team, and they have really embraced it. I am not new to this conference, but I know every game we have to show up ready to compete.

“Overall, we have a nice balance of experience and youth, our seniors set the tone, our returners are growing into their roles, and our newcomers are ready to contribute. It’s a group that competes everyday, plays for each other, and wants to keep moving this program forward.”

While the Hilltoppers may enter the season in the middle of the pack according to the poll, head coach Kyle Cooper and his staff are confident in the team’s balance of experienced returners and an impressive influx of newcomers.

“The future of Hilltopper women’s basketball looks both bright and bold,” he said. “We’re really excited about this recruiting class as our staff enters a little bit of uncharted territory with half our team being newcomers. There’s no doubt that we were very intentional with how we constructed this roster. We believe it has the makings of a team built to compete for championships on the court and win the scoreboard of life off it through who they are as people and a basketball family.”

Concord rounded out the top five with 60 points, with Frostburg State (56) and West Virginia State (48) sixth and seventh, respectively. Point Park (25) checked in 10th and Davis & Elkins (10) was 11th.

The 2025-26 MEC Basketball Championships will once again be held at WesBanco Arena in Wheeling, beginning Wednesday, March 4, and concluding Sunday, March 8.