Tigers Ranked No. 20 in ESPN.com/USA Softball Preseason Poll

BATON ROUGE, La. – LSU will enter the 2023 season ranked No. 20 in the ESPN.com/USA Softball Preseason Poll. This marks the 17th consecutive year the Tigers have been ranked in the ESPN.com/USA Softball preseason poll.

Including LSU, the SEC has nine teams ranked in the top 25 with three ranked in the top 10 and six in the top 20. For the 2023 campaign, the Tigers will play 20 contests against eight teams ranked in the preseason poll including No. 1 Oklahoma, the reigning National Champions on April 11 in Baton Rouge, La.

The Tigers return 13 letter winners from the 2022 roster which includes seven starters. Highlighting those starters are five All-SEC and NFCA All-Region selections in Ciara Briggs – who is also a 2022 Gold Glove Winner, Georgia Clark, Danieca Coffey, Ali Kilponen and Taylor Pleasants.

LSU will open the 2023 season with the LSU Invitational and will matchup against New Mexico (twice), No. 25 Oregon State (twice) and Nicholls State on Feb. 10-12 at Tiger Park.

 Rank, School (First-Place Votes), Points, 2021 Record, Final 2021 Ranking

1. Oklahoma (25), 625 pts, 59-3, No. 1
2. UCLA, 596 pts, 51-10, No. 3
3. Oklahoma State, 559 pts, 48-14, No. 4
4. Florida State, 497 pts, 54-7, No. 13
5. Florida, 481 pts, 49-19, No. 5
6. Arkansas, 464 pts, 48-11, No. 8
7. Alabama, 437 pts, 44-13, No. 17
8. Northwestern, 429 pts, 45-13, No. 6
9. Texas, 411 pts, 47-22-1, No. 2
10. Clemson, 410 pts, 42-17, No. 14
11. Virginia Tech, 357 pts, 46-10, No. 9
12. Tennessee, 346 pts, 41-18, No. 19
13. Georgia, 291 pts, 43-18, No. 23
14. Stanford, 286 pts, 39-22, T-No. 15
15. Arizona, 249 pts, 39-22, No. 7
16. Washington, 239 pts, 38-17, No. 18
17. Kentucky, 223 pts, 37-19, No. 21
18. UCF, 216 pts, 49-14, T-No. 15
19. Duke, 193 pts, 44-11, No. 12
20. LSU, 179 pts, 34-23, RV
21. Auburn, 124 pts, 40-17, RV
22. Oregon, 103 pts, 33-19, No. 25
23. Missouri, 88 pts, 38-22, No. 22
24. UL-Lafayette, 68 pts, 47-13, RV
25. Oregon State, 65 pts, 39-22, No. 10

Others receiving votes: Ole Miss (51), Mississippi State (43), North Texas (13), Arizona State (12), Notre Dame (12), San Diego State (11), Michigan (9), Wichita State (9), Nebraska (7), Baylor (5), Louisville (5), Ohio State (4), Cal State Fullerton (2), LMU (2), Minnesota (2), Boise State (1), BYU (1).

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