Butler Women appear in National Rankings for the first time this season

Story by Wyatt Ebersole

The Butler Women have been on fire to start the 2022 season and have earned their first National Ranking of the year. The Grizzlies are off to their third consecutive 8-0 start to a season and are coming off two wins last week over Northwest Tech 74-46 on Tuesday and a win over the Pratt Beavers 84-75 this past Saturday.  

The Grizzlies are back in the National Poll for the first time since the week 8 poll last year when the Grizzlies were ranked 20th. Butler is one three teams in this National Poll from the Jayhawk Conference, joining Barton who is ranked 17th and Hutchinson who is ranked 11th.

The Grizzlies are 8-0 for the third straight season and they have now appeared in the National Poll at some point every year for the last five seasons. The Butler Women are the only undefeated team remaining in the Jayhawk Conference and are currently tied for first place in the conference with the Cloud County T-Birds who are 8-1 overall and 3-0 in conference play.

The Grizzlies will have their first two big tests of the season this week as they travel to Coffeyville on Wednesday to battle with the rival Red Ravens at 5:30, and then have the always important and exciting game at home against the #11 ranked Hutchinson Blue Dragons on Saturday at 2pm. The Grizzlies have not won at Coffeyville since the 2019-20 season and have not beat Hutchinson since the Spring 2021 season. If the Grizzlies can pick up two wins this week, they will improve to 10-0 for the third consecutive season and will likely continue to climb up the National Rankings.