Sooners Top Big 12 Preseason Poll

NORMAN — Winner of the last eight regular season Big 12 championships, the Oklahoma softball team topped the 2021 Big 12 Preseason Coaches' Poll, the league announced Thursday.

2021 Big 12 Softball Preseason Poll
Rank	Team	Points
1.	Oklahoma (4)	34
2.	Texas (3)	33
3.	Oklahoma State	26
4.	Baylor	21
5.	Texas Tech	14
6.	Iowa State	13
7.	Kansas	6

This marks the ninth straight year and 12th in the last 13 seasons that OU has topped the conference's preseason poll. The Sooners received 34 points in this year's poll and were followed by Texas with 33 and Oklahoma State with 26. OU received four of the seven possible first-place votes with UT garnering the other three.

Baylor was selected fourth (21 points) and Texas Tech fifth (14 points). Rounding out the poll are Iowa State (13 points) and Kansas (6 points).

In 2019, the last year Big 12 conference softball contests were played due to the cancellation of the 2020 season prior to conference play, the Sooners became the first program to finish Big 12 play undefeated in back-to-back seasons. OU is undefeated in their last 54 conference series (50-0-4 in that span) and have not lost a conference series since 2011.

Oklahoma returns five All-Big 12 selections from 2019. Returning first-team honorees include redshirt senior pitcher Giselle Juarez, senior utility player Jocelyn Alo and junior utility player Grace Green. Redshirt senior pitcher Shannon Saile earned second-team accolades two seasons ago, and infielder Grace Lyons joined Green on the All-Freshman Team.

Green was tabbed Big 12 Freshman of the Year and head coach Patty Gasso was selected as the league's Coach of the Year for the 12th time.

The Sooners went 20-4 in the 2020 season prior to the cancellation and finished the year ranked sixth in the final NFCA poll.

Oklahoma's 2021 schedule and ticket information will be released soon.

For updates and more information on Oklahoma softball, follow the Sooners on Twitter and Instagram (@OU_Softball) and like Oklahoma Softball on Facebook.