ALBANY – The College of Saint Rose women’s soccer team is projected to finish in the same place where it left off each of the past four years. That is atop the Northeast-10 Conference standings.
The Golden Knights are picked to claim the 2010 regular-season title as voted upon by the league’s 16 head coaches. Saint Rose (24-1-0/15-0-0 NE-10) received 14 first-place votes for 224 points. This marks the first time throughout their NE-10 tenure (2000) that the Golden Knights are the preseason favorite. They were projected to finish second each of the past three seasons.
Saint Rose went on to become the seventh team to post an unblemished conference record last season, but the first to register a 15-win total. The Golden Knights subsequently advanced to the NCAA Division II National Semifinals for the second consecutive year.
Following Saint Rose, Franklin Pierce (18-5-1/12-2-1 NE-10) is picked to finish second after receiving 209 points while UMass Lowell (12-5-4/10-3-2 NE-10) secured a third-place finish in the poll with 184 points. Merrimack (13-6-4/10-4-1 NE-10) slides in at number four after collecting 177 points and is followed by Adelphi (10-5-3/8-5-2 NE-10) who rounds out the top-five with 164 points. The Panthers also picked up one first-place vote.
Stonehill (10-8-1/8-6-1 NE-10) is picked to finish sixth after receiving 143 points, while Southern Connecticut State (8-9-1/5-9-1 NE-10) tallied 132 points and the final first-place vote to finish seventh in the poll. Saint Anselm (9-9-1/8-7-0 NE-10) collected 127 points and is slotted eighth in what would be the final postseason spot in the regular-season standings. The Hawks are followed by American International (7-10-2/4-9-2 NE-10) with 103 points and Assumption (7-9-1/7-7-1 NE-10) with 96 points to round out the top 10.
Saint Rose has solidified its place among the premier NCAA II women’s soccer programs throughout the past decade. The Golden Knights became only the third team in NE-10 history (1985) to win three consecutive postseason league championships a year ago. The team’s lone loss was an overtime decision to eventual national champion Grand Valley State. Additionally, 15th-year head coach Laurie Darling Gutheil was named the 2009 NSCAA/Mondo National Coach of the Year. In the past eight seasons, she has led Saint Rose a 135-27-14 record and seven NCAA Tournament appearances.
The Golden Knights will play their inaugural campaign on the Dr. R. Mark and Kathleen Sullivan Field at the
Plumeri Sports Complex this fall. Saint Rose will christen its new home on Friday, September 3 when Holy Family visits for a 4:00 pm match. Mercy arrives on Monday, September 6 for a 1:00 pm Labor Day matinee. Saint Rose then begins its quest towards a fourth straight conference postseason title with an encounter at UMass Lowell on Friday, September 10.
In the men’s soccer preseason poll, Saint Rose was tabbed 13th while Southern New Hampshire, which is coming off of back-to-back regular-season titles, was selected as the preseason favorite. The Golden Knights (2-15-1/1-11-1 NE-10) are scheduled to play their first match at Sullivan Field on Saturday, September 4 when they host Concordia at 6:00 pm.
NE-10 Women's Soccer Preseason Poll
NE-10 Men's Soccer Preseason Poll