PORTLAND, Ore.— The Concordia University was picked third in the Cascade Collegiate Conference
Softball Preseason Poll, as announced by the league office on Tuesday.
Concordia, which finished third in last year’s regular season standings, totaled 36 points and placed third behind defending CCC champion College of Idaho and Southern Oregon in the preseason poll.
Concordia returns four starters and six letterwinners from its 2009 squad which finished the year with a 27-9 record. The Cavaliers will be led by returning first-team all-conference selections
Danielle Pulfrey and
Kayla Vickaryous. Pulfrey led the league with a 1.25 earned run average while Vickaryous finished fifth in the CCC with a .381 batting average.
The Cavaliers also received 11 votes in the NAIA Preseason Poll that was released on Tuesday to come in ranked at No. 40. The defending champion Yotes entered the ranking at No. 15 and Southern Oregon received 40 votes for a No. 33 ranking.
College of Idaho returns 14 letterwinners from last year’s club and were unanimous favorite to capture the 2010 CCC softball title, according to the preseason vote of the conference’s seven head coaches.
The Yotes, who have advanced to the NAIA World Series each of the past two seasons, earned all seven first-place votes while totaling 49 points overall in the balloting. Southern Oregon, which finished runner-up to C of I last year, totaled 39 points and was picked second. Trailing Concordia were: Oregon Tech (30 points), Corban (20), Northwest Christian (14) and Eastern Oregon (8) .
The top three teams in the CCC’s final regular season standings will meet in the conference’s postseason tournament May 7-8 to determine the league’s automatic berth in the NAIA World Series. The regular season champion will host the CCC tournament.
The NAIA World Series is slated for May 20-26 in Decatur, Ala.