MILWAUKEE, Wis. (naccsports.org) --- Defending Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC) women's basketball co-champions Wisconsin Lutheran College and St. Norbert College once again find themselves in close company to start the 2025-2026 season as the Warrriors hold a slim six-point edge over the Green Knights atop the conference's annual preseason poll.
Wisconsin Lutheran received 327 points and 16 first-place votes, while St. Norbert received 321 points and 10 first-place votes. Both institutions were selected either first or second on 25 of 26 ballots, with the only outlier for each being a lone third-place vote. The pair are well clear of third-place Aurora University with 262 points, while Benedictine University (240) holds a slight edge over Milwaukee School of Engineering (235) and Concordia University Wisconsin (234) for fourth place. Edgewood University (182) and Lakeland University (161) sit seventh and eighth, respectively, while Illinois Institute of Technology (110), Marian University (101), Concordia University Chicago (82), Dominican University (58), and Rockford University (53) round out the poll, which is voted on by the league's head coaches and athletics communications professionals.
2024-25 Recap
St. Norbert (22-5 overall) and Wisconsin Lutheran (21-8) shared the 2024-2025 NACC title with matching 15-1 records. It was the 11th NACC title for Wisconsin Lutheran and the second in three years for St. Norbert. The Green Knights and Warriors advanced to the NACC Tournament title game with Wisconsin Lutheran scoring a 57-54 victory in De Pere, Wisconsin.
Wisconsin Lutheran advanced to the 2025 NCAA Division III Women's Basketball Championship, taking No. 5 Gustavus Adolphus to overtime before falling, 61-49.
St. Norbert forward Taylor Thiry was named NACC Player of the Year, while Edgewood forward Vivian Guerrero repeated as NACC Defensive Player of the Year and Aurora guard Krystyna Manzanarez was named the league's top freshman. The league's coaches also recognized St. Norbert, led by head coach Amanda Perry, as the NACC Coaching Staff of the Year.
New Coaches
There is one new coach in the NACC this season as
Mike Winters has been named head coach at Rockford. Winters, a 1997 Rockford alum, brings with him more than 25 years of teaching and coaching experience across Northern Illinois.
2025-26 Schedule
The 2025-2026 regular season gets underway Friday, Nov. 7, with six NACC programs in action - Concordia Chicago travels to Franklin, MSOE hosts Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, Dominican entertains Beloit, Illinois Tech plays Spalding in a tournament at Principia, St. Norbert hosts the University of Chicago, and Aurora faces Blackburn in a weekend tournament at Webster. Four more programs get underway the following day as Marian hosts Dubuque, Wisconsin Lutheran travels to Trine, Concordia Wisconsin welcomes Carthage and Lakeland travels to UW-Eau Claire.
Benedictine opens its season Monday, Nov. 10, when it hosts Beloit, while the final two NACC programs to get underway will be Edgewood and Rockford - both on Wednesday, Nov. 12. Edgewood hosts Ripon and Rockford travels to Cornell College.
The NACC schedule gets underway with a pair of games before Thanksgiving. Wisconsin Lutheran hosts Marian on Tuesday, Nov. 18, while Rockford hosts Illinois Tech on Monday, Nov. 24. The league schedule begins in earnest on Wednesday, Dec. 3 with six games - MSOE at Dominican, Lakeland at Illinois Tech, Marian at Concordia Wisconsin, Concordia Chicago at Edgewood, Rockford at St. Norbert, and Aurora at Wisconsin Lutheran. Benedictine gets its first crack at conference play the following Saturday (Dec. 6) when the Eagles host Dominican. The league schedule runs through Saturday, Feb. 21.
Note: In mid-September, Alverno College notified the NACC it would not be competing in basketball during the 2025-26 season. Due to the late notice and the unbalanced nature of the NACC regular-season schedule, it was determined by the conference's administrative structure that each game against Alverno would officially be considered a no-contest with forfeit victories awarded in the conference standings for tournament qualification and seeding purposes only.
NACC Tournament
The top eight teams in the final regular season standings will qualify for the 2026 NACC Women's Basketball Tournament. Tournament play gets underway Wednesday, Feb. 25 with four quarterfinal games, followed by a pair of semifinal contests on Friday, Feb. 27. The tournament final is slated for Sunday, March 1. All tournament games will be played at the higher-seeded team in each contest. The tournament champion receives the NACC's automatic berth in the 2026 NCAA Division III Women's Basketball Championship.
| Women's Basketball (FPV) |
Points |
| Wisconsin Lutheran College (16) |
327 |
| St. Norbert College (10) |
321 |
| Aurora University |
262 |
| Benedictine University |
240 |
| Milwaukee School of Engineering |
235 |
| Concordia University Wisconsin |
234 |
| Edgewood University |
182 |
| Lakeland University |
161 |
| Illinois Institute of Technology |
110 |
| Marian University |
101 |
| Concordia University Chicago |
82 |
| Dominican University |
58 |
| Rockford University |
53 |