LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. --  In exclusive balloting by SCAC women's head basketball coaches, defending league champion Texas Lutheran University was tabbed as the preseason favorites to capture the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference title in 2014-15.

The Bulldogs received six of eight first-place votes to tally 48 points and headline the annual poll of head coaches. 

Coach Mel Dixon returns nine of his top 10 scorers from last year's championship team that won the SCAC title in the Bulldogs first season in the league. TLU defeated Trinity University, 54-52, when Karisa Cantu hit a 12-footer with 2.3 seconds to provide the final margin.

Last year's runner up, Trinity, took the remaining two first place votes for 43 points to finish second in the preseason poll, and Southwestern University was tabbed third with 37 points. Austin College and the University of Dallas both received 27 points in the polling to tie for fourth place.

Rounding out the rest of the poll is Schreiner Univesity (22 points), Colorado College (13 points) and Centenary College (7 points).

Poll results were tabulated by awarding seven points for a first-place vote, six points for a second-place vote, on down to one point for a seventh-place vote. Coaches voted for order of finish 1-7, but did not rank their own team.

To view the 2014-15 SCAC Women's Basketball Media Guide (66 pages), which contains extensive team-by-team previews for the upcoming season, click here.