Christmas came early for the 1989-90 women’s basketball team this week.

On Monday the Huskies signed E.C. Hill, one of the top high school guards in the country, and Tuesday it was announced the women cagers were picked to finish first in the North Star Conference preseason coaches poll.

The preseason poll was released at the North Star Conference’s inaugural media luncheon at Ditka’s City Lights in downtown Chicago.

Coaches and players from NIU, DePaul and Illinois-Chicago were present at the luncheon. Meanwhile, representatives from Valparaiso, Wisconsin-Green Bay, Akron, Cleveland State and Wright State were hooked up via teleconference from their respective schools.

Each team’s coach had a chance to express what he or she thought about the upcoming season.

First-year Commissioner Arnold Fielkow said there will be solid competition throughout the league—especially for the top spot.

“I think the competition for, let’s say the first three spots will be fairly intense,” Fielkow said. “I think Northern clearly is the odds-on-favorite to win the conference. But I think that DePaul and Green Bay and possibly a surprise school will give them a battle.”

Although the Huskies, Blue Demons and Phoenix expect to compete for the top position in the league, Fielkow believes places 4-7 will be hotly contested.

“I think the other places will be wide open, just as our coaches mentioned,” he said.

When NIU takes the floor this season, its toughest conference opponent most likely will be DePaul. But life without last year’s conference Player of the Year, Diana Vines, will make for a different Blue Demon squad.

“A year ago we were primarily a team of a dominant player—Diana Vines,” DePaul head coach Doug Bruno said. “She is no longer with us so our ability this year is going to have to come as a team. We have to play the way Northern played a year ago and that’s totally as a team.”

DePaul and NIU have established somewhat of a rivalry during the last few years. Last year, the Huskies beat DePaul in DeKalb, but when the NIU cagers traveled to Alumni Hall in Chicago, they lost two games, including the conference tournament championship. Each game had its own taste of the rivalry with plenty of pushing, shoving and hitting to go around.

“I think that it might calm down a little bit this year,” said senior Blue Demon Melanee Ehrhardt. “But there’s always going to be a rivalry between Northern and DePaul and its just because the competition is so great.”

Also announced at the luncheon was the coaches’ preseason choice for Player of the Year for the NSC. This year’s unanimous choice is NIU’s Carol Owens. The senior center from Notre Dame High School in Chicago averaged 21.1 points, 9.8 rebounds, 2.73 blocks and 2.87 steals in her junior year, all good for second in the conference statistics.

NIU will begin its season with an exhibition game on Tuesday, Nov. 21 against The Auckland Nationals from New Zealand. The Huskies begin the regular season in Minnesota on Nov. 28 and then come home for the Contel Fast Break Fest on Dec. 2 and Dec. 3.