ROCK HILL, S.C. --- Tusculum University has been selected to finish fourth in the 2021-22 South Atlantic Conference women's basketball preseason coaches poll, the SAC office announced Monday.

Guard Jalia Arnwine was a second-team preseason All-Conference selection for the Pioneers, who finished 19-4 last season and second in the league with a 15-3 record en route to their second consecutive SAC Tournament championship. Tusculum won its first NCAA Division II Tournament game in 11 years and ended the season ranked 18th in the Women's Basketball Coaches Association Division II poll.

Arnwine returns for her fifth season at Tusculum after earning honorable mention All-SAC honors last season. The Knoxville, Tennessee native started all 23 games for the Pioneers and averaged a career-high 13.6 points per game along with 3.5 rebounds, 1.2 assists and 1.2 steals per contest. Arnwine sank a career-high 54 three-pointers to rank second in the conference in total three-pointers and seventh in threes per game (2.3).

Arnwine scored a career-high 26 points against Tuskegee in the Pioneers' 77-64 win in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, and reached double figures 17 times last season including five games of 20 or more points. Arnwine was named to the SAC All-Tournament team after averaging 14.3 points per game in three conference postseason games.

Arnwine earned a bachelor of arts degree in criminal justice from Tusculum in May, and is enrolled in the master of business administration program. She begins her final season at Tusculum ranked fifth in program history with 153 career three-pointers, and is 190 points shy of becoming the 20th player to score 1,000 career points for the Pioneers.

Defending SAC regular-season champion Carson-Newman earned the top spot in the preseason coaches poll, with 150 points and 10 first-place votes. The Eagles, who went 15-2 in the SAC in the regular season, were eliminated in the conference quarterfinals and dropped their NCAA Tournament opener to Catawba, which is second in the conference poll with 136 points and one first-place vote. The Indians finished 11-4 overall and were third in the SAC at 9-2 last season.

UVA Wise, which was fourth in the conference at 13-4 last season, was third in the preseason poll with 122 points and garnered one first-place vote, followed closely by the Pioneers who had 120 points and the other first-place vote. Anderson (116 points) was fifth in the poll, followed by Lincoln Memorial (106) in sixth and Wingate (100) in seventh. Limestone (78 points) grabbed the eighth spot in the conference poll, trailed by Newberry (75 points) in ninth, and Lenoir-Rhyne (56) in tenth. The survey was closed out by Coker (47 points) in 11th, Queens (38) in 12th and Mars Hill (26) in the 13th and final spot.

The preseason All-Conference first team, as voted upon by the league's media relations offices, consists of Braelyn Wykle and Lindsey Taylor of Carson-Newman, Caitlyn Ross and Kalee Johnson of UVA Wise, De'Ja Marshall of Mars Hill and Bryanna Troutman of Wingate. Joining Arnwine on the second team were Quin Byrd and Reagan McCray of Limestone, Samantha Michel of Anderson, Shemya Stanback of Catawba and Addison Byrd of Carson-Newman.

Tusculum will tip off its 2021-22 season on Friday, Nov. 12 at 5 p.m. at Belmont Abbey in the SAC/Conference Carolinas Challenge. The opener will be a rematch of the Pioneers' final game of the 2020-21 season, a 74-59 loss in the Southeast Region semifinals to the eventual region champion Crusaders.

2021-22 SAC Women's Basketball Preseason Poll

2021-22 SAC Women's Basketball Preseason All-Conference
First Team
Braelyn Wykle, Carson-Newman
De'Ja Marshall, Mars Hill
Caitlyn Ross, UVA Wise
Kalee Johnson, UVA Wise
Bryanna Troutman, Wingate
Lindsey Taylor, Carson-Newman

Second Team
Addison Byrd, Carson-Newman
Quin Byrd, Limestone
Shemya Stanback, Catawba
Samantha Michel, Anderson
Reagan McCray, Limestone
Jalia Arnwine, Tusculum