Pride rise up the rankings at No. 17 in latest NAIA Coaches Poll

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The slow and steady rise up the NAIA Coaches Top 25 Poll continues for the Clarke University women's basketball team as they slot into the No. 17 spot in the second in-season poll released on Wednesday morning.

The Pride started the season ranked No. 19, moved up to No. 18 two weeks ago in the first poll of the season, and now hop up another spot as they currently sit at 7-2 on the season. Those two losses came against teams ranked in the top 15 against now No. 6 Wayland Baptist and No. 13 Indiana Wesleyan during their early non-conference schedule.

Clarke is the second-highest rated team in the Heart of America Athletic Conference with Central Methodist University cracking into the top 10 at No. 7 after their 8-0 start to the season. Two other teams from the Heart are mentioned in the poll but not ranked as Benedictine College and Grand View University are both receiving votes in the latest poll.

The full rankings can be found here.

For the Pride, they are led by their tandem of posts in Emma Kelchen and Taylor Haase who are averagine 14.2 and 13.7 points per game respectively with Kelchen working as the starting center and Haase coming off the bench. Guard Giana Michels is the third of three players averaging double figures for CU as she currently sits at 11.4 points per game with Tina Ubl and Nicole McDermott just shy of the double digit points per game mark at 9.8 and 9.6 respectively.

Clarke gets back to game action in the Heart of America tonight as they travel to Lamoni, Iowa for a road matchup against Graceland University at 5:30 p.m. CT before returning home on Saturday when they host Evangel University at the Kehl Center at noon.