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Rio Grande's Ella Skeens (left) and Kaylee Darnell (right) were among those named to the preseason All-River States Conference Women's Basketball Team on Wednesday. The RedStorm were picked as the favorite in the East Division and overall.
Rio Grande's Ella Skeens (left) and Kaylee Darnell (right) were among those named to the preseason All-River States Conference Women's Basketball Team on Wednesday. The RedStorm were picked as the favorite in the East Division and overall.
Posted: Oct 12, 2022

Rio women tabbed as preseason favorite; Skeens, Darnell on preseason All-RSC team

Rio Grande/RSC Sports Information
     MIDDLETOWN, Ohio - The University of Rio Grande was selected as the top team in the East Division and a clear overall favorite in the 2022-23 River States Conference Women's Basketball Preseason Coaches' Poll released Wednesday by league officials.
The announcement came as part of the league's Women's Basketball Media Day activities.
     The RedStorm received 10 of the 13 first-place votes and 142 points in the overall polling of RSC head coaches.
     Midway (Ky.) University is the favorite in the West Division and came in second in the overall poll of the 13 schools in the league. The Eagles received two first-place votes toward the overall poll and 131 total points.
     Rio Grande finished 32-3 overall and 16-1 in the RSC last year, winning both the conference regular season and tournament championships. The RedStorm advanced to the NAIA National Championship where it won a game for the first time in program history to move on in the bracket.
     Midway (26-8 overall, 15-2 RSC) met Rio Grande in the conference finals. The Eagles also advanced in the national tournament with a victory as well.
     Rio Grande, which begins its season at home on November 2 against Miami University-Hamilton, also placed two players on the Preseason All-Conference Team in senior guard Ella Skeens (Chillicothe, OH) and sophomore guard Kaylee Darnell (Wheelersburg, OH).
     Skeens, the RSC Player of the Year and Newcomer of the Year last season, leads the 10-player squad. She averaged a team-best 18.5 points and 8.0 rebounds per game, while shooting just under 51 percent overall, just under 43 percent from 3-point range and just under 77 percent at the foul line.
     Darnell averaged 12.2 points, 5.4 rebounds and 4.0 assists per contest en route to earning second team All-RSC honors.
     IU East and IU Southeast joined Rio in leading the preseason team with two selections each.
     Indiana University East (117 points) came in third in the preseason voting, followed by WVU Tech (107 points) in fourth. The top six teams in the overall poll also feature Alice Lloyd (Ky.) College (98 pts.) and Oakland City (Ind.) University (94 pts.).
     IU East was the third team from the RSC to make the national tournament last year. The Red Wolves, who were RSC semifinalists last season, ended the year at 25-8, 14-3 RSC.
     WVU Tech reached the conference semifinals and finished up at 16-16, 11-6 RSC. The Golden Bears received the final first-place vote toward the overall preseason poll.
     IU Kokomo and IU Southeast tied for seventh in the poll with each getting 70 points. Next up were Point Park (Pa.) University, Ohio Christian University, St. Mary-of-the-Woods (Ind.) College, Brescia (Ky.) University and Carlow (Pa.) University.
     New this year is IU East moving to the RSC West Division and Alice Lloyd moving to the RSC East. Another change is that the top five teams in each division will qualifying for the 10-team RSC Championship as opposed to four in past years.
     The remainder of the preseason all-conference team includes senior guard Addie Brown and junior guard Kennedy Griffin from IU East, the IU Southeast duo of senior guards Lauren Lambdin and Emmy Ralph, Midway junior forward Dezeree White, senior guard Taylor Dillard of Oakland City, Point Park senior forward Taylor Rinn and senior guard Rachel Bolyard of Ohio Christian.