Greenville, SC – The women's lacrosse coaches have picked Belmont Abbey College as champions in the 2026 Conference Carolinas Women's Lacrosse Preseason Poll, the conference office announced on Thursday.
The Crusaders received 96 points and six first place votes to edge the University of Mount Olive's 95 points and five first place votes. The teams split the 2025 regular season title with Mount Olive winning the last five tournament titles. Young Harris College is picked third with 81 points with Barton College coming in fourth with 73 point. North Greenville University rounded out the top five with 60 points.
Emmanuel University (57), Converse University (49), Shorter University (31), Southern Wesleyan University (29), Lees-McRae College (18), and Ferrum College (16) rounded out the poll.
Southern Wesleyan returns several key players from the 2025 season including All-Conference Second Team midfielder Fianna Steves. Steves had an impressive junior season for the Warriors where she led the team in both ground balls (81) and draw controls (54). She also had seven goals and two assists on the season. Also returning for the Warriors are a couple more of their leading scorers in Ella McCowen (17 goals and eight assists) and Hayley Billings (10 goals and three assists). The Warriors will also bring back goalkeeper Ava Lombardi who led the team with 53 saves last year. Joining the Warriors are 12 new faces including attacker Caelyn Little, who is named as a conference player to watch.
The Warriors will open up both the regular and conference season on the road as they travel up to Mount Olive, NC to take on the University of Mount Olive Trojans on February 7 at 4pm. They will host their home opener on February 21 as they welcome CSU-Peublo down to Central, SC. Southern Wesleyan's first home Conference Carolinas match of the season will be held on March 14 against the Lees-McRae Bobcats.
The 2026 Conference Carolinas Women's Lacrosse Championship starts with quarterfinal games on campus sites on Monday, April 20. The semifinals will take place at the Young Harris Lacrosse Field at Young Harris College in Young Harris, Georgia on Thursday, April 23. The championship game will be on Saturday, April 25 in Young Harris.
The preseason poll was voted on by the league's head coaches and they can't vote for their own school.
