[Click Here For Full Release]


South Easton, Mass. – The Bentley College women’s volleyball team is picked to claim the 2008 Northeast-10 Regular Season Title as voted by the conference’s 15 head coaches.

The Falcons received the majority of the poll’s first-place votes with 12 while compiling 221 points. Last season, Bentley finished 13-1 in the Northeast-10 and 24-10 overall as they advanced all the way to the NCAA Division II Northeast Regional semifinals.

The University of New Haven, the newest member of the conference, is picked to finish second in the poll. The Chargers received two first-place votes and picked up 201 points. The team finished 24-7 overall and 7-2 in the East Coast Conference in 2007. Following New Haven in the poll is Merrimack College (19-14, 11-3 NE-10) with 196 points and Franklin Pierce University (18-16, 10-4 NE-10) with 173 points. Pace University (13-16, 9-5 NE-10) received the final first-place vote and rounds out the top five with 147 points.

Predicted to finish sixth in the poll is the College of Saint Rose (14-13, 7-7 NE-10) with 144 points, while the University of Massachusetts Lowell (12-22, 7-7 NE-10) follows with 135 points, edging Le Moyne College (13-18, 7-7 NE-10) by two points. The Dolphins received 133 points for an eighth place finish. Stonehill College (9-20, 5-9 NE-10) is picked to finish ninth with 102 points, slightly ahead of Southern New Hampshire University (11-13, 6-8 NE-10) who received 101 points to round out the top 10.

In order, the remainder of the poll is as follows; Assumption College (13-11, 6-8 NE-10) is picked eleventh with 77 points followed by Southern Connecticut State University (11-26, 2-12 NE-10) with 61 points, American International College (6-12, 4-10 NE-10) with 56 points, Saint Michael’s College (7-21, 2-12 NE-10) with 30 points and Saint Anselm College (3-22, 2-12 NE-10) with 23 points.

In 2007 the Northeast-10 had three teams advance to the NCAA Tournament including Bentley, Merrimack and then member Bryant. New Haven also advanced to the NCAA Tournament as a member of the East Coast Conference.

Teams will begin their quest for the Northeast-10 title and a chance for an NCAA bid beginning on Wednesday, August 27 as Saint Rose will host non-conference opponent Dominican College. Tuesday, September 9 will feature a trio of conference match-ups to jump start conference play as Bentley travels to American International, UMass Lowell is at Southern New Hampshire and Franklin Pierce will host Assumption. All games are set for a 7 p.m. start.

The Northeast-10 Championship is slated to begin Friday, November 14 with the quarterfinals followed by the semifinals and finals on Saturday, November 15. This year’s championship will be hosted by Pace University. For more details log onto the Northeast-10 website at www.northeast10.org.

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.

- NE-10 -