Rams picked to finish third in HBCUAC women's soccer standings

By Alan Wiederhold
HT Athletic Communications
 
AUSTIN – The success of 2025 that produced one of the program's most successful seasons had little effect on the preseason voting for 2026 as the Huston-Tillotson women's soccer team was predicted to finish third in the HBCU Athletic Conference standings.
 
The Rams, who won the conference's now-discontinued West Division and advanced to the 2025 HBCUAC Tournament championship match, earning head coach Ori Gimeno the 2025 Coach of the Year award, received 26 total points in the 2026 preseason poll of league coaches.
 
Defending champion Talladega (Ala.) and Paul Quinn College received 28 points apiece.
 
The league also announced its preseason all-conference team alongside its predicted order of finish. Senior defender Kiara Leitón Amador (San José, Costa Rica) was the lone HT representative on the team. A transfer from Seward County Community College in Kansas, Leitón ranked second on the Rams in minutes played last season.
 
Wiley University, predicted to finish fourth in the coaches' poll with 22 points, placed three players on the preseason all-conference team. Paul Quinn, which lost all three matches played against HT in 2025, also placed three on the all-conference team.
 
Talladega led the way with five players on the All-HBCU Athletic Conference team.
 
Rounding out the coaches' predicted order of finish was conference newcomer Jarvis Christian, with 16 points. Each of the top five schools received at least one first-place vote, with Paul Quinn receiving two.
 
Tougaloo (Miss.) was picked to finish sixth out of six teams, an appropriate prediction given that the school will likely not field a team in 2026.
 
The Rams (0-1-0) visit Our Lady of the Lake in San Antonio on Thursday in their first matchup against an NAIA opponent.
 
– HT –