The University of Hawaii women’s basketball team will enter the season as the favorite to win the Big West title with the Rainbow Wahine voted first in the conference’s preseason poll released today.

The Rainbow Wahine received 13 of 17 first-place votes to lead the media poll with 147 points. UC Riverside placed second with two first-place votes, followed by Cal Poly, CSUN, Long Beach State, UC Davis, Cal State Fullerton, UC Irvine and UC Santa Barbara.  Cal Poly and Long Beach State also received a first-place vote.

UH senior Ashleigh Karaitiana was named to the Preseason Media All-Conference team. She is joined by Brittany Crain and Annelise Ito of UC Riverside, Raven Benton of Long Beach State, Alyson Doherty of UC Davis and Mokun Fajemisin of UC Irvine.

UH went 23-9 last season and won the Big West regular-season title with a 14-2 mark. They then fell to CSUN in the championship game of the conference tournament and finished the season in the WNIT.