CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa – The American Rivers Conference announced its 2026 preseason coaches' poll Wednesday afternoon. The Coe College softball team was picked T-6 in the poll, tying with the University of Dubuque with a total of 24 points. Simpson and Wartburg, the reigning A-R-C co-champions sit atop the poll with the Storm earning seven first-place votes for a total of 62 points while the Knights earned one first-place vote and 54 total points. Central, Loras and Luther round out the top five in the poll while Nebraska Wesleyan and Buena Vista sit behind the Kohawks and Spartans in eighth and ninth place. The Kohawks, led by Jake Koolbeck in his fourth season, return seven starters from 2025 and all-conference honoree Maddie Harris who hit .390 with 10 doubles and 24 RBI last year. 
 
The Kohawks begin the 2026 campaign in Louisville, Kentucky, playing six games across three days. The schedule opens with matchups against Transylvania (2/27) and Spalding (2/27) before facing The College of Wooster (2/28) and Transylvania (2/28) once more. The opening weekend of action rounds out with another matchup against The College of Wooster (3/1) and a closing game against host Spalding (3/1). The Kohawks pre-Spring Break action concludes the following weekend with two games on back-to-back days, facing Millikin (3/7 & 3/8) and UW-Stevens Point (3/7 & 3/8) in Decatur as Millikin hosts the three-team pod. 
 
Coe's Florida swing opens with a matchup against preseason no. 9 East Texas Baptist and Fredonia (3/14) before a single game against The College of Old Westbury (3/16) after a day off. The Spring Break trip ends with five games in the final four days, facing Amherst and Hartwick (3/17), UW-Stout (3/19) and Babson and McDaniel (3/20) to close out the schedule. Coe returns to Cedar Rapids and has just over a week off before seeing action again, hosting Monmouth (3/28) and Augustana (3/31) in a pair of non-conference doubleheaders. The homestand ends with the first A-R-C matchup of the year, hosting preseason favorite Simpson (4/4) in the opening weekend of April. 
 
The Kohawks then hit the road for their final conference matchup with Luther (4/7) before returning home for back-to-back doubleheaders against Nebraska Wesleyan (4/11) and Loras (4/13). Coe heads to Central (4/18) and Dubuque (4/21) in back-to-back series away from Cedar Rapids and later wraps up its A-R-C home slate with games against Buena Vista (4/25). The Kohawks play twice the first weekend of May, concluding league play on the road at Wartburg (5/2) ahead of a Bremner Cup matchup against Cornell (5/3) to close the regular season. The top six A-R-C teams then head to the number one overall seed for a single-game elimination tournament (5/8 & 5/9) for the league's automatic qualifying bid with the top two teams receiving a bye. 
 
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