Drake women find themselves as the unfamiliar underdog

The Drake women’s basketball team enters this season with a new role as under dog. A program that is used to competing for the Missouri Valley title and playing in the N-C-A-A tournament is picked to finish sixth in the pre-season valley poll. Senior forward Martha Chaput is not comfortable with low expectations. She says it’s hard to see their name in the middle after the tradition of being one of the top three teams. She says that’s motivation to climb back to the top. Chaput says new coach Amy Stephens and her staff have a certain way they coach, the extreme detail is one of the things she says sticks out.After playing in the W-N-I-T last season the U-N-I women are selected fourth in the pre-season Valley poll. Panther coach Tony Dicecco expects a balanced race this season, as he says teams will beat up on each other. Dicecco says an experienced core of players should make the Panthers a good defensive team. He says they have four “really quality” kids that have been able to prove themselves.