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November 1, 2011

USC Aiken Ranked 17th in Preseason National Poll

LILBURN, Ga. – The University of South Carolina Aiken women’s basketball team is ranked 17th in the 2011-12 preseason USA Today/ESPN Division II Top 25 Coaches' Poll.

USC Aiken is one of three Peach Belt Conference teams ranked in the preseason top 25. Defending National Champion Clayton State is the preseason national No. 1. Lander is ranked 10th.

The national ranking of 17th marks the first time that USC Aiken has been ranked in the preseason national poll since prior to the 2008-09 season.

The 2010-11 season was truly a year to remember for the USC Aiken women’s basketball team. The record-setting year concluded with USC Aiken having won a school-record 27 games.

The Pacers also won their first ever NCAA Tournament game and claimed a share of the Peach Belt Conference East Division title. The Pacers closed out the year having won 22 of their last 26 games.

USC Aiken reached the 2011 Peach Belt Conference Tournament Championship game in 2011, beating eventual national champion Clayton State in the semifinals to reach the championship game. The Pacers were the only team to down the national champions during the 2010-11 season.

The Pacers were ranked as high as eighth nationally and finished the year ranked a program-best 13th in the final poll of the 2010-11 season. 

The ranking of eighth was the highest ranking for USC Aiken’s women’s basketball program since reaching a program-best seventh in the Dec. 2 poll of the 2008-09 season.

USC Aiken was first ranked in the 2010-11 season in the Dec. 14, 2010 poll. The Pacers would close the year by being ranked in the final 12 polls of the 2011-12 season.

The ranking of 25th in the Dec. 14 poll of the 2010-11 season was the first for the USC Aiken women’s basketball team since the Feb. 3, 2009 poll. The Pacers were ranked in the first ten polls of the 2008-09 season.

USC Aiken has been in the Top-25 for at least one week in four of the last five seasons.

Prior to being ranked in the 2007-08 preseason poll, USC Aiken had last appeared in a national poll on Dec. 12, 2002 when they were 20th. The Pacers dropped out the following week, ending a string of 16 straight polls appeared in at the time dating back to 2001. 

USC Aiken will open their 2011-12 season with an exhibition game against Atlantic Sun Conference foe and NCAA Division I institution Jacksonville at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 5. It will mark the second straight season USC Aiken has opened things up with an exhibition against an Atlantic Sun school. Last year, USC Aiken easily dispatched of former league rival and current Atlantic Sun institution Kennesaw State, winning 79-61 at the KSU Convocation Center on Nov. 3, 2010.

The Pacers will begin the regular season at home at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 15 against 2011 Peach Belt Conference Tournament champion Georgia College. The contest will not be a Peach Belt Conference game though.