NEW YORK (JMU Athletics) – James Madison women’s basketball earned national recognition ahead of the 2025-26 season, receiving votes in the USA Today Sports Preseason Coaches Poll on Thursday afternoon.
The Dukes earned four points, placing them as the 11th team outside the top 25. Head Coach Sean O’Regan’s squad finished as the eighth team outside the top 25 in the final poll of the 2024-25 season. JMU was as high as the de facto No. 28 team in the country on March 11, 2024, earning seven points.
The team also received votes in the Associated Press Top 25 for five consecutive weeks a season ago (Feb. 17 – March 17).
The Dukes won a program-record 30 games – including 20 consecutive contests – and reached the quarterfinals of the Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament (WBIT). JMU produced its fourth undefeated season in conference play, becoming just the eighth team in Sun Belt Conference history with a perfect record against league opponents since the league expanded to double-digit conference games in 1991-92.
Peyton McDaniel returns for her redshirt senior season and was recently named the 2024-25 Sun Belt Conference Female Athlete of the Year, the league’s preseason player of the year and was selected to the Becky Hammon Mid-Major Player of the Year Watch List.
The Dukes open the 2025-26 season with a five-game homestand, starting with a MAC-SBC Challenge against Kent State on Monday, Nov. 3. Action inside the Atlantic Union Bank Center is slated for 6 p.m.
— JMU Athletics —
