SEARCY, Ark. — Expectations could hardly be higher for the Harding women's basketball team as it prepares to open the 2026-27 campaign.

Coming off a 24-7 season that brought another Great American Conference regular-season championship and the program's third straight trip to the NCAA Division II Central Region Tournament, the Lady Bisons enter the new year as the overwhelming favorites in the league.

On Thursday, the GAC released its annual preseason coaches' poll, placing Harding squarely at No. 1 with 120 total points and 10 of the possible 11 first-place votes from opposing coaches. Southeastern Oklahoma State, which edged Harding in last March's conference tournament semifinals, picked up the remaining two first-place votes to finish second with 108 points.

The source of that league-wide respect is simple: the Lady Bisons return all five starters and more than 84 percent of their offensive production from a roster that did not feature a single senior a season ago.

Over the past four seasons, Kirby has guided the Lady Bisons to a staggering 100 victories (an average of 25 wins per year), two GAC tournament crowns, and three consecutive national tournament berths.

The veteran backcourt features 4th-year guards Josie Williams and Maddi Holt. Williams, a 5-foot-7 playmaker from Conway, Arkansas, earned first-team All-GAC honors last year after leading the team with 13.3 points per game while dishing out 109 assists. She enters her final season with 1,082 career points and ranks third in program history in career free throw percentage (.828). Holt, a 5-foot-8 perimeter specialist from Bergman, Arkansas, is Harding's all-time career leader at the charity stripe (.851) and sank 56 3-pointers last season while averaging 11.0 points.

They are joined in the backcourt by sophomore floor general Kori Sanders, who put together one of the most durable debut seasons in school history. The 5-foot-5 Lamar, Arkansas, native set program single-season records in both total minutes (1,176) and minutes per game (37.9), while her 71 steals ranked fourth all-time in a single campaign. Sanders, a second-team All-GAC pick, averaged 10.8 points and finished second in the conference with 149 assists (4.8 per game).

Rounding out the starting five are two more 2nd-year standouts: 6-foot guard Alli McAda (7.7 ppg, 5.5 rpg), who posted a 30-point, 13-rebound double-double in her first season, and 6-foot-3 center Kennedy Stout. Stout immediately established herself as one of the premier rim protectors in the country, swatting 63 shots (2.0 blocks per game)—the third-most in a single season in Harding history.

Harding's bench provides seasoned scoring punch in 5-foot-10 junior guard Allie Rehl (9.5 ppg), who connected on 43.8 percent of her 3-point attempts last winter to post the eighth-best single-season percentage in school history. Sophomore center Myiah Butler (6-3) also returns after playing in all 31 games, while forward Jalisa Walker (5-10) is back healthy after starting the first four games of last season.

Kirby and assistant coach Rusty Garner also fortified the roster with four newcomers. Headlining the group is Division I graduate transfer Taelor Coxford, a 6-foot-1 forward from Langley, British Columbia, who played 25 games for the Little Rock Trojans last season. Three true freshmen also join the fold: guard Karstyn Scrivner (Nashville, Ark.), forward Livi Fosness (Mountain Home, Ark.), and forward Rowan Geer (Grove, Okla.)—the younger sister of former Lady Bison All-American Rory Geer.

The Lady Bisons will be tested immediately. Harding opens the season on Friday, Nov. 6, in Owensboro, Kentucky, against perennial South Region powerhouse Union (Tenn.), followed by a clash with Atlantic Region contender Gannon on Saturday, Nov. 7.

Harding will make its home debut at Rhodes-Reaves Field House on Wednesday, Nov. 11, against Southwest Baptist at 5 p.m., part of a demanding non-conference slate that also features trips to Delta State, Missouri Western, Midwestern State, and a pre-Christmas visit to Honolulu, Hawaii, for the Hoop N Surf Classic.

Conference play gets underway on Monday, Nov. 30, at Arkansas-Monticello, as Harding begins its quest to defend its GAC title and punch a fourth straight ticket to the NCAA Tournament.