Posted: Feb 03, 2021

Bulldogs open year at No. 2 in NFCA's preseason poll for NCAA Division III

SEGUIN, Texas -- Defending NCAA Division III national champion Texas Lutheran is ranked second in the 2021 NFCA Preseason Poll for NCAA Division III.

The Bulldogs, the 2019 NCAA champions and 19-1 in 2020 before the season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, trail only regional rival East Texas Baptist in the new poll.

TLU won the 2019 NCAA Regional Tournament hosted by ETBU (defeating the Tigers along the way) and advanced to the 2019 Super Regional against Linfield (Ore.) in McMinnville, Ore. After defeating Linfield in a three-game series, TLU played in the NCAA DIII Championship Finals and posted a perfect 5-0 record en route to its first-ever softball national championship.

In the run to the 2019 national championship, TLU went 18-5 against teams that were ranked or received votes in the 2019 NFCA Top 25. The Bulldogs had wins over Birmingham-Southern College (twice), Eastern Connecticut State University, ETBU (twice), Emory (Ga.) (twice), Linfield (twice), Southwestern (Texas) (five times), Transylvania (Ky.) (twice), Trine (Ind.), and Williams (Mass.).

The Bulldogs' 2021 squad still has nine players - utility player Rebecca Snow, infielder Kali Chatham, infielder Casey Martin, pitcher/outfielder Chassety Raines, pitcher/utility player Kayla Oliveira, infielder/designated player Haley Padilla, outfielder Skylar Ouellette, catcher Sarah Metzer, and outfielder Kelly Jurden - that played on the 2019 national title squad.

Of those nine players, seven were regular starters in 2019. All nine of the Bulldogs were significant contributors in the 19-1 start to the 2020 season.

Jurden and Raines each claimed Academic All-America honors in 2020.

Jurden is a three-year starter for the Bulldogs. As the team's left-fielder and center-fielder, she has a career batting average of .416 with 118 runs scored, 142 hits, 46 RBI, 48 walks, and 113 stolen bases.

Jurden is the all-time stolen base leader at TLU, and she led all of NCAA Division III in steals, with 61, in 2019. She was named the 2019 New Balance/NFCA Golden Shoe award winner for leading DIII in stolen bases.

Raines, the Most Outstanding Player of the 2019 NCAA Division III Softball Championship, is 12-0 in her Bulldog pitching career. She has a career ERA of 0.98 with 31 strikeouts in 71-1/3 innings pitched.

Raines was the winning pitcher in the DIII championship final win over Emory. She tossed a complete-game, three-hitter in the championship victory.

In addition to the return of Raines in the circle, the Bulldogs bring back three other top-tier pitchers - Ashlyn Strother, Kayla Oliveira, and Sydney Ouellette. Strother went 8-0 in her true freshman season a year ago. Oliveira posted a 7-1 record last year and is 25-4 in her Bulldog career. Ouellette, the younger sister of starting right-fielder Skylar Ouellette, was 2-0 with four saves in 2019.

On the offensive side, TLU returns seven players that hit .333 or better. Jurden was hitting .429 with 23 stolen bases when the season was called after a March 14, 2020 doubleheader with Trinity.

TLU will once again be led by Head Coach Wade Wilson, who starts his 10th season with the Bulldogs. Wilson is 301-67 with the Bulldogs overall, and he has a 167-16 record with TLU in conference play (nine years in the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference and two seasons in the American Southwest Conference).

Perennial powers Christopher Newport (Va.), Virginia Wesleyan and Salisbury (Md.) round out the top five in the preseason poll. Linfield, Central (Iowa), Kean (N.J.), DePauw (Ind.) and Berry (Ga.) complete the top 10.

Another of TLU's regional and area rivals, Mary Hardin-Baylor, is ranked 13th in the preseason poll.

The NFCA Division III Top 25 Poll is selected by eight NCAA Division III head coaches representing the eight NCAA regions. Final 2020 records are listed, with first-place votes in parentheses. In 2021, schools that are not competing will not be eligible for the poll.

NFCA Division III Top 25 Poll – Feb. 3, 2021

Rank	Team	2020 Record	Points
1	East Texas Baptist (8)	15-0	200
2	Texas Lutheran	19-1	192
3	Christopher Newport	12-1	184
4	Virginia Wesleyan	11-1	176
5	Salisbury	17-3	168
6	Linfield	12-2	160
7	Central (Iowa)	6-1	152
8	Kean	9-1	144
9	DePauw	6-3	136
10	Berry	12-2	128
11	St. John Fisher	7-3	100
12	Transylvania	9-1	96
13	Mary Hardin-Baylor	12-3	87
14	St. Olaf	7-1	79
15	Milwaukee School of Engineering	9-1	77
16	Eastern Connecticut State	2-0	69
17	Carthage	10-2	61
18	Birmingham-Southern	14-4	55
19	Moravian	9-1	52
20	Geneseo	4-1	44
21	Wisconsin-La Crosse	2-2	42
22	Trine	7-3	40
23	Randolph-Macon	8-3-1	29
24	Tufts	0-0	23
25	Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute	12-0	21

Others receiving votes: Maryville (Tenn.) 19, Illinois Wesleyan 17, Ferrum 12, Williams 11, St. Catherine 8, Wisconsin-Oshkosh 7, Manhattanville 6, Mount Union 3, Averett 2.