Here are the NSCAA Women’s NCAA Division III Preseason Top 25 rankings as sanctioned and conducted by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America:
| Rank/Team | 1997 Record |
| 1. UC San Diego | 20-2-0 |
| 2. William Smith | 18-4-0 |
| 3. Washington (Mo.) | 17-4-1 |
| 4. Elizabethtown | 19-5-2 |
| 5. Mary Washington | 19-2-2 |
| 6. Macalester | 19-2-0 |
| 7. Amherst | 14-3-0 |
| 8. Middlebury | 13-4-0 |
| 9. Calvin | 19-2-1 |
| 10. Plymouth State | 15-3-0 |
| 11. William Paterson | 16-3-1 |
| 12. Rochester | 15-2-2 |
| 13. St. Thomas | 17-3-0 |
| 14. Trinity (Texas) | 14-3-1 |
| 15. Richard Stockton | 12-5-1 |
| 16. Gustavus Adolphus | 14-5-1 |
| 17. Coll. of New Jersey | 18-1-0 |
| 18. North Carolina Wesleyan | 15-4-2 |
| 19. Nazareth (N.Y.) | 16-1-2 |
| 20. Bowdoin | 10-4-1 |
| 21. Cal Lutheran | 15-5-0 |
| 22. Western Connecticut | 17-3-0 |
| 23. Gettysburg | 14-6-0 |
| 24. St. Benedict | 13-3-3 |
| 25. Kalamazoo | 17-2-1 |