BATON ROUGE — LSU’s Lady Tigers basketball team is ranked ninth is the preseason Associated Press poll released by the media organization on Tuesday afternoon.
The Lady Tigers, which finished the 2002-03 season third in the nation by the AP with a 30-4 record, open the regular season against Villanova on Saturday at 6 p.m. CST in the Women’s Sports Foundation Tip-off Classic hosted by the University of Oregon.
Defending national champions UConn was the unanimous choice for the top spot in the poll, while Duke is second followed by Texas, Tennessee, Stanford and Purdue.
Penn State, LSU’s opponent on Nov. 21 in University Park, Pa., is eighth, while Texas Tech rounded out the top 10.
Other future Lady Tigers’ opponents ranked in the poll include SEC foes Georgia and Auburn, and Rutgers (at home on Dec. 2) and Arizona (at home on Jan. 4).