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South Easton, Mass. – The University of Massachusetts Lowell field hockey team has been selected to bring home the 2008 Northeast-10 Regular Season Title as voted upon by the conference’s 10 head coaches. The River Hawks received nine first-place votes for a total of 99 points.

The River Hawks finished 15-1 in Northeast-10 action and 19-3 overall last season winning their fifth straight NE-10 Tournament championship. Last year UMass Lowell advanced all the way to the Division II National Championship game before falling short in a heart-breaking loss to Bloomsburg.

Stonehill College (15-6, 12-4 NE-10) received the final first-place vote with 81 points as the Skyhawks are predicted to finish second. The Bentley College Falcons (15-7, 13-3 NE-10) received 80 points for a third place finish. Saint Michael’s College (9-11, 8-8 NE-10) is picked to finish right behind the Falcons as the Purple Knights were selected fourth with 78 points.

The next three teams are separated by a mere three points in the poll. Saint Anselm College (9-10, 8-8 NE-10) collected 48 points to finish fifth, while Southern Connecticut State University (8-12, 7-9 NE-10) picked up 47 points and Assumption College (8-11, 6-10 NE-10) received 45 points to finish sixth and seventh respectively.

In order, Merrimack College (4-15, 4-12 NE-10), Franklin Pierce University (1-18, 1-15 NE-10) and American International College (3-15, 2-14 NE-10) round out the poll.

The 2008 season gets under way on Friday, August 29 with a couple of games slated. First, the defending Northeast-10 champion UMass Lowell will travel to Indiana, Pa. for a non-conference game against Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference foe Indiana University while Merrimack will face American International in the first Northeast-10 contest of the season.

The Northeast-10 Tournament is scheduled to begin on Wednesday, October 29 with the quarterfinal round followed by the semifinal round on Saturday, November 1. The finals are set for Sunday, November 2. 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.

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