ST. PAUL, Minn. – The UW-Superior softball team has been picked to finish third in the 2021 Upper Midwest Athletic Conference standings, according to a preseason poll of league head coaches, announced Wednesday.
 
Under the leadership of first-year head coach Melissa Fracker, the Yellowjackets earned 50 points in the poll, sitting behind St. Scholastica (61 points, six first-place votes) and Northwestern (54 points, three first-place votes).
 
UWS, which returns 10 letterwinners to a team that went 5-5 in a COVID-19-pandemic-shortened season in 2020, will, along with eight newcomers, challenge for a UMAC title in the spring.
 
The 'Jackets edged 2019 conference champion Bethany Lutheran by one point for a top-three spot. Minnesota Morris was chosen fifth with 31 points, Crown was sixth with 30 and Martin Luther was seventh with 26. Northland (14 points) and North Central (9) rounded out the voting.