PORTLAND, Ore. - With the season just a week away, the GNAC announced the results of the 2024 GNAC Softball Preseason Coaches Poll on Friday, with Northwest Nazarene picked to finish atop the conference.

The Nighthawks received all seven first-place votes and 49 points to be the unanimous selection to claim their fourth-straight GNAC regular season championship. Western Washington was second with 41 points, Saint Martin's third with 35 points, and Western Oregon fourth with 25 points. Central Washington, Montana State Billings, and Simon Fraser round out the poll. 

Not only has NNU won the last three conference regular season titles, the Nighthawks have also won back-to-back GNAC tournament championships and have reached the NCAA regional in each of the last three seasons. Last year, NNU went the farthest they ever have, winning three games at the Concordia regional just missing out on a berth in super regionals. 

NNU will open the 2024 campaign in California next week, visiting Biola on Feb. 1 before four games at the Concordia Kickoff Classic on Feb. 2 and 3. The Nighthawks will play 11 games over the first two weeks, with five of those coming against teams that debuted in the NFCA Preseason Top 25 earlier this week. GNAC play will begin the weekend of March 8-9 when the Nighthawks host Simon Fraser.

 

Rank	Team (FPV)	Points	2023 Record	GNAC Record (Finish)
1	Northwest Nazarene (7)	49	39-17	21-3 (1st)
2	Western Washington	41	26-23	13-11 (3rd)
3	Saint Martin's	35	29-18	15-9 (2nd)
4	Western Oregon	25	22-30	11-13 (4th)
5	Central Washington	19	21-27	9-15 (6th)
6	Montana State Billings	17	18-28	10-14 (5th)
7	Simon Fraser	10	11-36	5-19 (7th)