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South Easton, Mass. – The Le Moyne College Dolphins (27-1, NE-10) were picked to finish on top of the Northeast-10 softball standings this upcoming season as voted by the conference’s 11 head coaches.

The Dolphins received 11 first-place votes out of a possible 15 for 219 points. Le Moyne won their second straight Regular Season Championship and fifth in six years last season. The Dolphins won their first title in 2003.

UMass Lowell (17-11, NE-10) is picked to finish second after receiving 204 points along with two first place votes.

The University of New Haven received a first place vote and 191 points are predicted to finish third in the conference. The Chargers, competing in the Northeast-10 for the first time, finished 12-8 in the East Coast Conference last season and advanced to the NCAA Northeast Regional’s. Southern Connecticut State University (17-11, NE-10) received 170 points along with the final first place vote to earn them the fourth spot.

Other schools receiving over 100 points are Pace University (16-12, NE-10), Stonehill College (15-13, NE-10), and Southern New Hampshire University (13-15, NE-10) and are ranked fifth (140 points), sixth (139 points) and seventh (135 points) respectively.

The College of Saint Rose (14-14, NE-10) received 98 points and edged out Saint Anselm College (15-13, NE-10) by one point for an eighth place finish. The Falcons received 97 points and are picked to finish ninth. American International College (10—18, NE-10) is next on the poll with 96 points and is selected to finish tenth in the poll. Bentley University (13-15, NE-10) follows closely with 95 points and is picked to finish eleventh, just ahead of Merrimack College (9-19, NE-10) who received 89 points.

Assumption College (11-17, NE-10) picked up 68 points and Franklin Pierce University (8-20, NE-10) received 30 points, while Saint Michael’s took 29 points and are predicted to finish thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth respectively.

The 2009 season gets underway on March 1 with Saint Anselm traveling to Cocoa Beach to take on St. Mary-Woods. The first NE-10 conference matchups are slated for March 25 with three conference match ups slated.

With 15 member institutions the Northeast-10 is the second largest NCAA Division II athletic conference in the nation. Its 23 championship sports provide athletic opportunities for over 5,500 student-athletes, the largest such program of any Division II conference.

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