Head Coach Mike Drahos' Pitt-Johnstown women's basketball team, coming off of an 8-20 season and a 4-18 mark in conference-play, has been picked by the league's coaches to finish eighth in the nine-team PSAC Western Division when the 2017-18 preseason poll was released by the conference office on Thursday.

East Stroudsburg and IUP have been selected to win the Eastern and Western Division, respectively, for the 2017-18 Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Women's Basketball season. The favorites were announced by the league office Thursday morning along with the preseason coaches' poll.

Pitt-Johnstown returns four starters, including senior forward Olivia McCabe and junior point guard Laurel O'Barto.  McCabe was Pitt-Johnstown's leading rebounder (9.1 rpg.) and second-leading scorer (13.3 ppg.), while O'Barto led the team in both assists (151) and steals (52).  Junior guard Tori Moreland and sophomore guard/forward Gabrielle Smith are also expected to return to the starting line-up.  However, Coach Drahos' team team will still be relatively young with just one senior (McCabe), three juniors and 10 underclassmen.  Pitt-Johnstown must also replace forward Jamie Tabon, who led the team in scoring (13.5 ppg.) and was second in rebounding (8.2 rpg.).

In the Eastern Division, The East Stroudsburg Warriors grabbed the top slot in the poll after receiving seven of the nine possible first-place votes. Coach Diane Decker enters her third season at ESU and returns a pair of first-team all-conference selections in Imani Brown and Noelle Powell. The duo combined to average 26.3 points per contest while leading the Warriors to a 19-9 (14-8 PSAC) record. ESU averaged 72.1 points per contest, which marked the second-best in the league in during the 2016-17 season.

In the West, IUP earned eight first-place votes and sits atop the west after winning its fifth PSAC title last season. The Crimson Hawks seek to repeat as they return all five starters. Four of the five starters averaged double figures while the team shot a league-best 36.7 percent from behind the arc. Coach Tom McConnell's team advanced to the NCAA Atlantic Region semifinals and finished the season 24-7 (18-4). Junior Carolyn Appleby paced the team with 14.7 points per contest while teammate Megan Smith chipped in with 14.1.