JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. – Sophomore Georgia Simonsen was selected as the Big South Player of the Year, and the Highlanders tied with High Point as preseason favorites to headline the 2026-27 conference honors. The Big South Preseason Poll and preseason all-conference honors were announced on Wednesday morning at Big South Media Day in Johnson City.
Senior Cate Carlson joined Simonsen in receiving preseason conference honors, with the guard being named to the preseason second team.
The Highlanders picked up four first-place votes in the preseason poll and finished with the same number of first-place votes and total points (75) as High Point. Radford finished second in both the conference regular season and tournament, ending a game back of High Point in the regular season and losing to the Panthers in the Big South Tournament championship.
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Simonsen is coming off a spectacular first season, which culminated in her receiving the Big South Freshman of the Year award. Her 11.4 points per game ranked 11th in the conference, and 6.5 rebounds was the 10th best. Simonsen played some of her best basketball to end the season, averaging over 15 points per game over the final eight games, which included four games of 20-plus points. Her 20-point performances against Charleston Southern and Longwood helped earn the Fairfax native a spot on the all-tournament team. Simonsen led the conference with 40 blocks and ranked in the top 125 nationally in the category.
Carlson returns to the preseason all-conference team after receiving first-team honors in 2025. The Virginia Beach native set new career highs with 328 points, 145 rebounds, 41 assists and 982 minutes after playing in all of the Highlanders' 36 contests. Some of her highlights included taking over in a second overtime to lead Radford to a win over Navy, scoring six 3-pointers in a win vs. Winthrop on Jan. 31 and scoring a season-best 20 points against Morehead State in Radford's first home WNIT game.
Radford is picked to win the conference for the first time since 2019-20 – a season in which the Highlanders placed second in the regular season and were poised for a run before the COVID-19 pandemic canceled the tournament. This is the fifth straight season Radford has been picked to place in the top four and the 14th time the program has been picked first. It is also the first time Radford will share the top spot with another Big South program. It is the first time that two teams share the top spot since High Point and Gardner-Webb did so in 2022-23.
The Highlanders return to the hardwood on Wednesday, Oct. 28 at 7 p.m. when they take on Southern Virginia in an exhibition. Their first regular season contest is at Clemson on Monday, Nov. 2. Tipoff is set for noon and can be seen on ACCNX.
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