Madison, Wis. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse women's basketball team is picked to finish third in the 2025-26 Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) standings in a preseason poll conducted by the league's head coaches and sports information directors. The preseason poll was announced by the conference office Thursday. 
 

A LOOK INTO THE WIAC

• Preseason Poll Results: UW-Oshkosh was picked to win the WIAC regular season title while UW-Whitewater is picked to finish second, UW-La Crosse third, and UW-Stout fourth. Following UW-Stevens Point in fifth is UW-River Falls, UW-Eau Claire and UW-Platteville. 
• 2024-25 Season: UW-Oshkosh won the regular season crown while UW-Whitewater won the WIAC Tournament title. With the tournament championship, UW-Whitewater earned the conference's automatic bid to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) National Tournament and advanced to the Sweet 16. UW-La Crosse, UW-Oshkosh, UW-Stout and UW-Stevens Point all received at-large bids to the NCAA Tournament. The Eagles advanced to the second round while UW-Whitewater advanced to the Sweet 16 and both UW-Oshkosh and UW-Stout made the national semifinals. 
• 2025-26 Preseason Top-25 Poll: UW-Oshkosh and UW-La Crosse are ranked in the D3hoops.com Top-25 preseason poll. The Titans are ranked third while the Eagles are 15th. UW-Stout, UW-Whitewater and UW-River Falls are all receiving votes.
• 2025-26 WIAC Tournament: The top-six teams in the league standings will qualify for the WIAC Tournament (presented by Culver's).  The event will be held February 23, 25, and 27, with all games hosted by the higher-seeded team.  The winner of the tournament will receive the league's NCAA Division III automatic bid.

FROM THE COURT

• The  Eagles return three players who started all 29 games games last season including Grace Knupp, Malia Nelson and Ali Sprangers. These three were also three of the Eagles top five scorers from a season ago. As a team, UWL averaged 66.5 points per game (ppg) and shot 40.9% from the floor. 
• Individually, Knupp finished second on the team in scoring as she averaged 8.8 ppg. Nelson averaged 7.7 ppg while Sprangers chipped in 7.1 ppg. 
• Nelson and Sprangers were the top rebounders as they averaged 4.9 and 4.6 rebounds per game, respectively. 
• Defensively, the Eagles held their opponents to 38.9% shooting from the floor and 30.1% from the three-point line. As a team, the Eagles forced 14.2 turnovers per game. Knupp led the Eagles with 1.3 steals per game while Sprangers averaged 1.2 blocks per game. 

FROM THE SIDELINES

• Moran Lonning starts her third season as UWL's head coach after leading the Eagles to a 17-12 overall and 7-7 WIAC record a year ago. Under Lonning's leadership, the Eagles earned its first bid (at-large) to the NCAA Division III national tournament since the 2019-20 season. In the first round, UWL defeated Colorado College 79-52 for its first NCAA tournament win since 1988.
• Prior to being named head coach at UWL, Lonning spent the previous season (2022-23) as the Head Coach at Central College (Iowa). Prior to that she was an assistant coach at Simpson College (Iowa) from 2016-22. 
• Joining Lonning on the bench will be Angel Allen (5th year), Deja Williams (2nd year), Bobbi Vandenberg (8th year) and Wesley Quintana (5th year). 

2025-26 SCHEDULE

• UWL opens the season with an exhibition game on November 1 at the University of Minnesota State - Mankato at 4 p.m. 
• The Eagles will then play their first official game of the season when they travel to River Falls to play in the UW-River Falls Tip Off Tournament November 7 and 8. UWL will face Hope College (Mich.) at 7:30 p.m. on November 7 and Calvin College (Mich.) at 1 p.m. on November 8. Calvin College is ranked 18th and Hope College 23rd in the D3hoops.com Preseason Top-25 poll.  
• UWL will welcome Luther College (Iowa) for their home opener on November 22 at 5:00 p.m. The basketball game will happen simultaneously as the Eagles wrestling team will also be competing against Luther College in the same gymnasium. The wrestling and basketball teams will be honoring Greg Lonning, the late father of Moran Lonning and former UWL Head wrestling coach. Both Greg (wrestling) and Moran (basketball) are alums of Luther College. 
• The 14-game WIAC schedule will begin on Jan. 3.