Bentley Picked to Finish First in Upcoming NE-10 Women’s Basketball Season

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

For Immediate Release

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South Easton, Mass. – The Falcons of Bentley College are favored to capture the Northeast-10 Regular Season Title in the upcoming 2007-08 Women’s Basketball season as voted by the conference’s 15 head coaches.

Overall, Bentley received 200 points and five first place votes. Last season the Falcons finished fourth in the Northeast-10 and advanced all the way to the Northeast Regional final against the eventual Division II National Champion Southern Connecticut State University.

The Owls are selected to finish second this year receiving 196 points and four first-place votes. Coming in third, slightly behind Southern Connecticut are the Yellow Jackets of American International College who received 189 points and five first-place votes. Stonehill College, predicted to finish fourth, received the final first-place vote and 176 points just ahead of Franklin Pierce College (174).

Assumption College (148), The College of Saint Rose (141), Pace University (117), Bryant University (116) and the University of Massachusetts Lowell (76) round out the top 10 respectively.

The remainder of the field included, in order, Merrimack College (73), Saint Michael’s College (61), Le Moyne College (54), Southern New Hampshire University (47) and Saint Anselm College (32).

Last year, Southern Connecticut won it’s second straight Northeast-10 Championship defeating Pace to advance to the NCAA Northeast Regional. The Northeast-10 had six institutions represented in the regionals. Those teams included American International, Bentley, Pace, Saint Rose, Southern Connecticut and Stonehill. Southern Connecticut faced off against Bentley in the Northeast Regional Final with the Owls victorious and advancing to the Elite Eight.

At the Elite Championship, Southern Connecticut cruised to the finals defeating their opponents by an average score of 17 points. The Owls matched up against heavily favored Florida Gulf Coast in the NCAA Division II Championship game. Like the first two contests, the Owls outscored the Eagles by 16 points (61-45) to claim the National Championship.

The 2007-08 season kicks off Friday as Assumption takes on Indiana (Pa.) in Orlando, Fla. for the Disney Tip-Off Classic. Conference action gets underway on Tuesday Nov. 20 with seven NE-10 match-ups slated. The NE-10 Championship starts on March 2 and will conclude with the championship game on March 9.

Sponsoring 23 championship sports and 15 full-time members, the Northeast-10 is the second largest NCAA Division II athletic conference in the nation and sponsors the most championships of any Division II conference.