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South Easton, Mass. – The Franklin Pierce University women’s soccer team were selected to claim the 2008 Northeast-10 Regular Season Title as voted upon by the conference’s 15 head coaches.

The Ravens finished 9-1-4 in Northeast-10 action and 18-1-6 last season as they advanced all the way to the Division II National Championship game before falling short in a heart-breaking loss to the University of Tampa.

Franklin Pierce received eight first-place votes for 218 points in the poll, edging out last year’s Northeast-10 Regular Season and Tournament Champions, the College of Saint Rose (19-1-2, 12-0-2 NE-10) by one point. The Golden Knights picked up the remaining seven first-place votes for 217 points.

Following Saint Rose in the poll are the Warriors of Merrimack College (13-5-4, 8-3-3 NE-10) with 190 points and the University of Massachusetts Lowell River Hawks with 158 points (11-9-1, 6-7-1 NE-10). Saint Anselm College (9-8-3, 6-5-3 NE-10) rounds out the top five after receiving 141 points.

The University of New Haven, the newest member of the Northeast-10, is picked to finish sixth after receiving 128 points. The Chargers were 12-7-2 overall and finished 8-2-0 in the East Coast Conference in 2007. Southern Connecticut State University (7-9-2, 4-9-1 NE-10) follows closely in seventh with 125 points, while Stonehill College (8-7-3, 8-3-3 NE-10) is next with 118 points. Le Moyne College (9-8-1, 5-8-1) is predicted to finish in ninth place with 111 points and Southern New Hampshire University (8-10-1, 6-8-0 NE-10) comes in with 95 points for a tenth place finish.

In order, the rest of the poll is as follows, Assumption College (4-11-2, 3-10-1 NE-10) with 94 points, Bentley College (8-9-3, 5-6-3 NE-10) with 66, Saint Michael’s College (8-7-3, 4-7-3 NE-10) with 65 points, American International College (7-13-0, 2-12-0 NE-10) with 46 points and Pace University (4-12-2, 1-11-2 NE-10) with 28 points.

In addition to Franklin Pierce’s appearance in the Division II National Championship game, the Northeast-10 was well represented in the NCAA tournament last year with then member Bryant University, UMass Lowell, Merrimack and Saint Rose all receiving bids. Teams will begin their quest for the conference championship as well as a chance to play for a National Championship beginning on Thursday, August 28 as both New Haven and Southern Connecticut host non-conference opponents. The first NE-10 conference match-up is scheduled for Tuesday, September 2 with American International traveling to Franklin Pierce.


The Northeast-10 tournament is slated to begin on Sunday, November 2 with the quarterfinals followed by the semifinals on Thursday, November 6. The finals will take place on Sunday, November 9. For more details log onto the Northeast-10 website at www.northeast10.org throughout the season.

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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