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South Easton, Mass. –Franklin Pierce University has been selected to claim their first-ever Northeast-10 women’s basketball Regular Season title as voted by the conference’s 15 head coaches. Overall, the Ravens received 222 points to put them on the top of the preseason coaches’ poll.

Franklin Pierce advanced to their first-ever Elite Eight appearance after winning the NCAA Northeast Regional Final last year. The Ravens picked up 12 of the possible 15 first-place votes in the poll.

Stonehill College, last year’s regular season champion, received the remaining three first-place votes as the Skyhawks are picked to finish second after receiving 211 points. Bentley University appears next in the poll, in third place, with 191 points followed by Assumption College with 183 points. The College of Saint Rose rounds out the top five with 143 points.

Le Moyne College is picked to finish sixth with 129 points slightly ahead of Southern New Hampshire University who picked up 120 points. Pace University appears in the eighth spot with 114 points, while American International College is picked ninth with 90 points just ahead of the University of Massachusetts Lowell with 89 Points. The University of New Haven, the newest member of the Northeast-10, and Saint Michael’s College are tied for 11th as the final playoff bound teams with 77 points.

Southern Connecticut State University (73), Merrimack College (46) and Saint Anselm College (35) round out the final three spots of the poll.

In addition to Franklin Pierce’s appearance in the Elite Eight, the Northeast-10 was well represented in the NCAA Tournament as five teams including Assumption, Bentley, then member Bryant University and Stonehill appeared in the tournament.

The 2008-2009 season tips-off on Friday, October 31 as American International and Bentley will travel to Orland, Fla. to take part in the three-day Disney Tip-Off Classic. Bentley will face Lake Superior State while American International will face South Carolina Aiken. The first conference match ups start on Wednesday, November 19 with seven contests slated.

The Northeast-10 Championship begins on Sunday, March 1 with first round action and concludes Sunday, March 8 with the championship final.

For more details log on to the NE-10 website throughout the season 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 suchprogram of any Division II conference.

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