James Madison's Dawn Evans 23.8 points per game a season ago were a season record for the Colonial Athletic Association, and the second-best output in the country.

But that production wasn't enough to earn Evans the 2008-09 CAA Player of the Year Award. And on Tuesday, the winner of that award, Drexel's Gabriela Marginean, once again beat out Evans for the league's 2009-10 preseason top player honor.

Evans was named to the CAA's preseason all-conference team, announced Tuesday at the league's media day in Washington, D.C.

Marginean and her Drexel teammates also beat JMU in last year's CAA championship game at the Convocation Center in Harrisonburg.

In the conference's preseason poll, also released Tuesday, the Dragons were once again favored to beat the Dukes.

James Madison coach Kenny Brooks put little stock into his team's preseason second-place prediction.

"The league is going to be wide open this year," Brooks said. "I just took a peak at the rankings, and you probably could jumble one through eight up and switch it in any order. Who knows what's going to happen. And the key for us, just like for a lot of teams this year, is to stay healthy."

Old Dominion, the program that had won 17 consecutive CAA titles prior to last year's loss in the conference semifinals, was picked to finish third in the preseason poll.