On Tuesday, the women’s basketball team received the honor of being ranked No. 1 in the preseason USA Today Sports/ESPN Division II Coaches’ Poll.

The USA Today Sports board of coaches, made up of 33 coaches from around Division II that are members of the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association, votes on the rankings.

The Eagles received 25 first-place votes and got 767 of a possible 825 points.

Ashland is coming off of a historic season in which it went 33-2 and won 33 straight games before falling in the national championship to Shaw (N.C.) in overtime.

Ashland brings back all of the starters from that team except point guard Jena Stutzman, who averaged 15.3 points, 3.3 rebounds and 2.9 assists per game.

Returning at forward for AU will be last year’s National Player of the Year and Division II Women’s Athlete of the Year recipient Kari Daugherty. Daugherty, now a senior, led the nation with 14.1 rebounds per game, scored 21.3 points per game and averaged 4.1 assists.

Other returning starters include senior guard Lindsay Tenyak (8.2 ppg), junior forward Ashley Dorner (12.7 ppg, 5.4 rpg) and junior guard Alyssa Miller (7.6 ppg, 4.2 rpg, 5.0 apg).

Senior forward Daiva Gerbec, who was an honorable mention for All-American in 2010-11 but had to sit out all of last season due to injury, also returns to bolster the already loaded lineup. She brings 2010-11 averages of 15.9 points and 10.7 rebounds.

Coming off the bench for the Eagles will be sophomore guard Taylor Woods, senior forward/center Beth Mantkowski and senior guard Kaci Finfrock, who all played significant roles in 2011-12, though Woods’s season was cut short when she suffered a broken jaw in February.

Ashland also added a new piece during the offseason in transfer Noelle Yoder. Yoder, a junior guard, spent the last two years playing for Division I Bowling Green in the Mid-American Conference. As a sophomore in 2011-12, she averaged 3.3 points and 0.6 rebounds while coming off the bench for the Falcons.

This will be head coach Sue Ramsey’s 18th season at the helm for Ashland. She was named National Coach of the Year last season.

Joining Ashland in the top five are Bentley, Pittsburg State, Rollins and South Carolina-Aiken. Bentley, Pittsburg State and Rollins were all in last year’s Elite Eight in San Antonio.

The Eagles beat Bentley in the national semifinal. Shaw is ranked No. 8 in the preseason poll and received eight first-place votes.

The only other Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference team in the top 25 is Ferris State, who Ashland beat in the conference championship last year. The Bulldogs are No. 24.

Wisconsin-Parkside, who the Eagles faced in the Midwest Regional final, begins the year ranked No. 25.

The Eagles begin their quest to get back to San Antonio on Nov. 9 at the Disney Tip-off Classic in Anaheim, Calif., where they will play West Texas A&M, No. 15 Gannon and No. 13 Grand Canyon on consecutive days.

Ashland will return to play its first home game 3 p.m. Nov. 17 against Kentucky Wesleyan.

Another notable nonconference opponent is No. 11 Indianapolis, where the Eagles will travel Dec. 14.

One thing is for sure: Ashland will have a target on its back from the very first game. That is all a preseason No. 1 ranking means. If the team is to get its chance at winning a national championship, it is going to have to earn it.

There is no doubt that the Eagles are capable, but it will take a complete effort from Eagle Nation to get behind them and repeat the magic that was last year’s run.

With the football team primed for a playoff run and the women’s basketball team preparing for another historic season, we could be entering upon the golden age of Ashland Athletics.