INDIANAPOLIS – After opening the season with 15 consecutive victories for the first time in school history, the Marian College women’s basketball team broke into the National Top 25 Coaches’ Poll announced by the NAIA on Monday.

 

The Knights (15-1; 3-1 MCC) are ranked No. 16 in the nation after receiving 191 total points which put them ahead of Grand View College by six points. The Knights were on the outside in the first two polls of the regular season after they received 22 votes in the December 8 poll and received one vote in the December 1 poll.

 

Head coach Todd Bacon's program last cracked the Top 25 on February 1, 2006, when the Knights were ranked No. 23 in the nation with a 13-6 record. The Knights got as high as No. 11 in the country in the first Top 25 poll of that season.

 

The Knights won their first 15 games this season before falling on Saturday at a tough Taylor University, which received 50 votes in this poll, 72-53, at Odle Arena. The defeat was the first for the Knights in 15 games and left them as just one of three teams in the Top 25 with one defeat.

 

Before the defeat, the Knights were just one of five unbeaten teams in the nation and the three that remain unbeaten are ranked No. 1, 2, and 3 in this week’s poll.

 

Marian College is one of four Mid-Central College Conference programs in the Top 25 as Huntington (#8), Bethel (#11), and Indiana Wesleyan (#18) are also ranked.

 

The Knights get back on the court on Wednesday when Spalding University comes to the Physical Education Center. Tip-off is slated for 7 p.m., and the game can be heard LIVE on the Web at www.marian.edu/athletics by clicking the LISTEN LIVE link.