Imari Berry, left, and Tajianna Roberts at Louisville's preseason "Louisville Live" event in 2024.

The Cardinals received 22 first-place votes, while Tajianna Roberts and Imari Berry were among 10 players named to the preseason All-ACC team.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB+WAVE) — The University of Louisville women’s basketball team enters Jeff Walz’s 20th season with high expectations, two preseason all-conference guards and plenty of unfinished business.

The Cardinals were picked to finish second in the Atlantic Coast Conference preseason poll released Tuesday, while juniors Tajianna Roberts and Imari Berry were named to the 10-player preseason All-ACC team.

Louisville received 22 first-place votes from the league’s 76 voters, trailing only defending ACC champion Duke, which received 49. The Blue Devils totaled 1,649 points to Louisville’s 1,580, with North Carolina, Notre Dame and NC State rounding out the top five.

Louisville and NC State were the only two programs with multiple preseason All-ACC selections.

The recognition comes after a season in which Louisville finished second in the ACC regular-season standings, reached the conference tournament championship game and advanced to the NCAA Tournament’s Sweet 16.

For Roberts, who returns alongside a substantial portion of last season’s roster, the goal is to turn those near misses into something more.

“I think we got a taste last year of what we could have had,” Roberts said at ACC Media Days last week. “But for me personally, I think I’m tired of being right there. You know, I want to be there.”

Roberts, Louisville’s leading scorer last season at 11.5 points per game, earned preseason All-ACC recognition for the second consecutive year. She was a first-team All-ACC selection by the league’s coaches last season after scoring in double figures 25 times.

She also averaged a team-best 3.5 assists in conference games, including a career-high seven in a road victory over Miami.

Berry, meanwhile, enters her junior season after being named the ACC Sixth Player of the Year as a sophomore.

She averaged a team-leading 11.4 points in conference play, highlighted by a career-high 33-point performance in an 88-80 overtime victory at NC State. Berry scored 25 of those points in the second half and overtime as Louisville rallied from a 13-point deficit.

Berry spent much of her offseason working on her conditioning, including running football fields and pushing sleds, with an emphasis on becoming more consistent and confident as her responsibilities grow.

“I feel like our core is really good, and we know what Coach Walz wants,” Berry said at ACC Media Days. “So just bringing them along the way, and just putting them on our backs, and just showing them every practice, like what he wants and what he needs on the floor.”

The two Louisville guards were joined on the preseason All-ACC team by Notre Dame’s Hannah Hidalgo, who led all players in voting, Duke’s Toby Fournier, Virginia’s Kymora Johnson, Syracuse’s Uche Izoje, NC State’s Khamil Pierre and Zoe Brooks, Georgia Tech’s Talayah Walker and California’s Lulu Twidale.

The preseason recognition continues a remarkable run of consistency under Walz. Louisville has finished among the ACC’s top five in all 12 seasons since joining the conference, the only program to accomplish that feat.

The Cardinals were picked fourth in last season’s preseason poll before finishing second.

Louisville opens the 2026-27 season Monday, Nov. 2, against Bellarmine at 5 p.m. at the KFC Yum! Center. The game is the first half of a doubleheader with the Louisville men, who face Chattanooga later that evening.

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Louisville women picked 2nd in ACC preseason poll; Roberts, Berry earn all-conference honors