After a series of losses and recent back-to-back wins, the Lady Monarchs (12-7, 4-2 Sun Belt Conference) find themselves back in the Mid-Major Top 25 Poll. They are now ranked at number 22 with 96 points, marking their fourth time as a ranked team in the Poll this season. 

a six-game win streak between late November and early December led to the Lady Monarchs becoming ranked at 19 with 218 points on Dec. 13,. This would be their first time ranked since the ‘10-’11 season. A week later on Dec. 20, they bumped up a slot to number 18 with 244 points. Unfortunately, with back-to-back losses to Mississippi State and New Mexico, they would see their way down the Poll to number 23 with 81 points. 

Entering conference play the following week, the Lady Monarchs would go on to lose both of their games, the first against Appalachian State with a score of 55-81 and the second against James Madison (JMU) 54-68. JMU (16-2, 6-0 Sun Belt conference) now ranks in this week’s Poll as well at number 6 with 579 points. 

However, hope has not been lost for the Lady Monarchs as since those two conference losses, they have gone on to win four straight games against Sun Belt Conference opponents. They beat ULM, South Alabama, Georgia Southern, and Marshall. Their recent overtime wins against Georgia Southern and went down to wire which resulted in a victory over Marshall as well.

The Lady Monarchs fell to the Lousiana Ragin Cajuns’ last night 61-51 and dropped to 12-8 (4-3) on the season. They will meet the Georgia State Panthers (8-11, 2-4 Sun Belt conference) on Saturday with tip-off slated for 2 pm. It will be quite the test for ODU as they have historically gone on a couple of losing streaks when on back-to-back road trips. On the road, they are currently 3-6.