C. Vivian Stringer will face her toughest challenge in years this season when inexperienced Rutgers take the floor. The Scarlet Knights snuck into the Associated Press pre-season rankings, checking in at No. 25 Friday.
To nobody's surprise, defending national champion Connecticut was the unanimous No. 1. The Huskies received all 40-first place votes from the national media. Geno Auriemma's club returns four starters from a team that went 39-0 en route to their sixth national championship last season.
Stringer's club, which lost center Kia Vaughn to graduation and leading scorer Epiphanny Prince to the pros a year early, was picked to finish sixth in the Big East coaches' poll last week.
AP Preseason Top 25 Rankings
1. UConn
2. Stanford
3. Ohio State
4. Notre Dame
5. North Carolina
6. Duke
7. Baylor
8. Tennessee (lowest pre-season ranking since 1985)
9. LSU
10. Michigan State
11. Xavier
12. Texas
13. Oklahoma
14. Virginia
15. Florida State
16. Arizona State
17. Depaul
18. California
19. Georgia Tech
20. Kansas
21. Georgia
22. Vanderbilt
23. Louisville
24. Middle Tennessee State
25. Rutgers