HELENA -- Montana Tech's women's golf team checked in third in the Frontier Conference's annual preseason coaches' poll, the conference office announced Wednesday. 

The Orediggers garnered 37 points and one of the league's eight first-place votes to land in the No. 3 spot, following league favorite Rocky Mountain (46 points, four first-place votes) and second-picked Bellevue (42, three). Tech finished just ahead of fourth-voted Dickinson State, which carried 31 points. A first-place vote is worth seven points, second place is worth six, and so on to seventh place with one point. Coaches omit their own teams from their rankings. 

The Frontier Conference will carry a new look onto the course in 2025-26 with the addition of four programs that joined the league from the merger with the North Star Athletic Association — Bellevue, Dickinson State, Mayville State, and Valley City State. That quartet joins the existing Frontier teams of Montana Tech, Carroll, Providence, and Rocky Mountain. 

Montana Tech returns valuable experience from last season's squad, including seniors Kodie Hoagland and Emma Woods. Both logged top-three finishes at the Frontier/Cal Pac NAIA Qualifier in April, and Woods became the Orediggers' first-ever tournament medalist and Frontier women's golfer of the week earlier in the spring. Tech finished second among the six teams in the postseason tournament. 

The Orediggers will have new leadership this season under head coach and Tech alumnus David Starcevich, who was hired as the program's head coach this summer. 

Fans can get their first look at the 2025-26 Montana Tech women's golf team when the Orediggers compete in Butte Country Club's Labor Day Classic from August 30-September 1.

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