West Virginia Preseason Girls Poll released Monday

With the girls basketball season officially opening Tuesday night, the Associated Press released its preseason polls on Monday afternoon.

To no one's surprise, Morgantown and Huntington are back on top of the Class AAA preseason ratings as both have key players returning.

The Highlanders received two first-place votes and feature sophomores Whitney Bays and Erin Bailes. The duo is expected to take the team back to Charleston late in the year, but they will have to overcome a stiff test from their district and region foes to get there.

In class A, Huntington St. Joseph was ranked fourth in the preseason poll and tied top-ranked Parkersburg Catholic and No. 2 Wheeling Central for most first-place votes with three. The Fighting Irish are also behind South Harrison, who was ranked third but did not receive any first-place votes.

Class AA was topped by Summers County and Winfield -- a pair of teams that collected all 10 first place votes. Locally, Tolsia received two votes in the poll.

GDT