Story courtesy of Christa Parulis-Kaye, Assistant Commissioner of Media Relations

ATTLEBORO, Mass. - Lesley University has been tabbed as the preseason favorite to capture the New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) softball championship, it was announced today by Commissioner Del Malloy. Voting for the preseason poll was conducted among the NECC's head softball coaches.

This is the inaugural year for the New England Collegiate Conference. Softball is the only spring sport that all nine NECC members sponsor.

The Lesley Lynx (30-12, 17-3 NAC) received eight of the nine first-place votes in the 2009 NECC preseason poll. The Lynx are led by head coach Jen Benway who will return ten players and eight starters including four North Atlantic Conference first team players in Jodi Fralick (Woburn, Mass.), Alyson Durben (Stow, Mass.), Alicia Burnett (Gulf Breeze, Fla.) and Lani Cabral-Pini (Wilmington, Mass.) and one second team in Gianna Spaziante (Hawthorne, N.Y.). Fralick and Durben were named Player and Rookie of the Year respectively.

Elms College was picked as the runner-up receiving one first-place vote. Bay Path College grabbed the number three spot with 48 points. While Mitchell College and Newbury College received 46 and 30 points rounding out fourth and fifth place preseason spots.

Teams received nine points for every first place vote received, eight points for second place votes, seven points for third place votes, down to one point for a last place vote. First place votes are shown in parentheses.

2009 NECC PRESEASON SOFTBALL POLL

TEAM -POINTS (1st Place votes)
1. Lesley-71(8)
2. Elms-62(1)
3. Bay Path-48                   
4. Mitchell-46
5. Newbury-30
6. Daniel Webster-26
7. Becker-24
8. Wheelock-14
9. Southern Vermont-4