KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The University of Providence women's basketball team came in at #16
in the latest NAIA National Poll that was released on Wednesday.
The ranking ties the highest mark of the season for the Argos (25-5, 12-3). The team
moved up from #19 three weeks ago.
"I'm happy we moved up," head coach
Bill Himmelberg said. "It's still not where we want to be. We're just going to continue to work and in the end the goal is to be as high as we can possibly be in put ourselves in a good position for the National Tournament."
The Argos are one of three teams from the Frontier Conference that are represented in the poll. Rocky Mountain College, who shared the conference regular season title with the Argos, are ranked #10, while Carroll College is right behind them at #11. The three teams are separated by only one conference game, and Himmelberg firmly believes by playing each team three separate times, combined with the non-conference schedule the team played, the Argos stack up nicely against the top teams across the nation.
"We're as good as anybody in the country," Himmelberg said. "Carroll was ranked as high as #5 in the country and we've beaten them a couple of times. We've seen a lot of the teams up there in the rankings. We can match up with anybody in the country. We're definitely one of the top teams in the country."
With the Frontier Conference postseason women's basketball tournament kicking off Wednesday night, the squad has shifted their thinking to postseason play, where the squad will likely only face teams that are represented in the rankings moving forward.
"We're just trying to be the best we can be at all times," Himmelberg said. "The postseason is no different than any other game. The girls know what's at stake. We have an experienced, older group so there's not really anything that we have to say out loud. They know it's time for us to play and they're going to step up and big games."
The Argos will play in the semifinals of the Frontier Conference postseason women's basketball tournament on Saturday in the McLaughlin Center at 7:00 p.m.
