HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, Ky. – Northern Kentucky's softball team has been picked to finish sixth among 10 teams in the Horizon League Preseason poll.
 
League coaches picked Oakland as the favorite to win the league with 82 votes, including two first-place votes. The Golden Grizzlies return five All-Conference players from a group that last year finished as the Horizon League Championship runner-up.
 
Defending regular-season champion Youngstown State was tabbed second (81 votes) and had five first-place votes. The Penguins went 36-15 (28-8 Horizon League) last season, won their first regular-season title in program history, claimed the No. 1 seed in the Horizon League Championship and hosted the tourney for the first time since 2006.
 
UIC, the reigning Horizon League Championship victor, claimed the third spot in the preseason poll with 74 votes. Two of the votes were for first place. The Flames' 2021 campaign ended in the NCAA Tournament's Columbia Regional.
 
Fourth-place Robert Morris (74 votes) and fifth-place Green Bay (49) preceded the Norse (39).
 
Coach Kathryn Gleason and youthful NKU, which has six newcomers including five freshmen, start the season at the Blue Hose Invitational in Clinton, S.C. They face Tennessee Tech at 10 a.m. Friday.
 
 
2022 #HLSB Preseason Poll
Place  Team – Points (First-place votes)
1.         Oakland – 82 (2)
2.         Youngstown State – 81 (5)
3.         UIC – 74 (2)
4.         RMU – 62
5.         Green Bay – 49
6.        Northern Kentucky – 39
7.         IUPUI – 32
8.         Detroit Mercy – 29
9.         Cleveland State – 25
10.       Purdue Fort Wayne – 22