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Skyhawks post record point total to lead standings by 6.5 points, win four fall championships
Northeast-10 Conference Presidents' Cup Fall Release
EASTON, Mass. (December 1, 2014) – Four-time Northeast-10 Conference Presidents’ Cup Champions Stonehill College holds a six and a half point lead after posting a program-record point total to lead the Presidents’ Cup standings after the NE-10’s fall season the league has announced.
Stonehill, which has finished in the top three of the final Northeast-10 Presidents’ Cup ten straight years, finished the fall season with 89 points. The Skyhawks lead two-time defending Presidents’ Cup champions Adelphi University (82.5 points) by six and a half points, with Assumption College (72.5) sitting in third place, Bentley University (68.5) fourth and Southern Connecticut State University (66.5) rounds out the top five. Stonehill’s 89 points are 21 points better than its fall total last year when it was edged by Adelphi by 4.5 points (180.5-176) in the final standings.
“I’d like to offer my congratulations to our fall student-athletes and coaches on their collective performance,” said Brendan J. Sullivan, Director of Intercollegiate Athletics at Stonehill. “Winning the Northeast-10 Presidents’ Cup is an annual goal for our Department because of the comprehensive success that it represents. Throughout the fall, we have experienced many great victories, highlighted by our four conference championships and five NCAA tournament berths, which has positioned us well to reach our goal. However, the work for the year is not done yet, and we now turn to our winter student-athletes to strengthen our lead in the standings.”
Stonehill, which finished the 2013-14 academic year with six Northeast-10 Championships, has already won four after the fall season. The Skyhawks got maximum points from the first volleyball regular season championship in program history as well as its sixth-straight NE-10 women’s cross country title. Stonehill also earned postseason championships in field hockey and women’s tennis during the fall season. Men’s and women’s cross country, field hockey, volleyball and women’s tennis have all secured NCAA Tournament bids to date for the athletics department. The Stonehill field hockey team will compete in the national semifinals on Thursday against LIU Post (4 p.m.) in Louisville, Kentucky, as part of the Division II Fall Championships Festival, while the cross country teams will run its NCAA Championships race on Saturday in Louisville. Women’s tennis will compete in the NCAA Tournament this spring with its automatic bid.
All six Stonehill programs with NE-10 postseason championships qualified for their respective tournaments. Men’s soccer finished tied for third in the regular season standings and hosted an NE-10 Tournament match for the first time since 1994. Field Hockey finished the regular season second in the regular season standings before defeating top-seeded LIU Post in the championship, 1-0, for its second postseason championship. Women’s Tennis finished third in the regular season standings before reeling off three NE-10 Tournament wins to its fifth Conference Crown. Men’s cross country added a second place finish to the women’s title at the NE-10 Championships, while women’s soccer also qualified for its NE-10 Tournament and football finished sixth in the regular season standings.
Stonehill has won the NE-10 Presidents’ Cup four times, following the 2005-06, 2009-10, 2010-11 and 2011-12 academic years. The Presidents' Cup is presented annually to signify overall athletic excellence in the Northeast-10. The honor is awarded to the institution that compiles the most cumulative points, based on finishes in the regular-season standings, from all of its programs competing in league championships. Points for men's and women's cross country, men's and women's swimming & diving, men's and women's indoor and outdoor track & field, and men's golf are awarded based on placement in those sports’ respective conference championships.
With 20 intercollegiate sports, Stonehill boasts one of the top athletic and academic programs in the country. In addition to finishing in the top three in the final NE-10 Presidents' Cup standings ten straight years, the Skyhawks have received the NCAA Division II Presidents' Award for Academic Achievement each of the first three years of the program's existence of honoring programs with an Academic Success Rate (ASR) of 90-percent or better. The Stonehill has earned a 96% Academic Success Ranking (ASR) by the NCAA, which considers the academic success rate of the institution based on the graduation rate of student-athletes, good for eighth among all NCAA Division II institutions, with 12 Skyhawk teams receiving a perfect rating of 100%. In addition, the Skyhawks are ranked third in the National Collegiate Scouting Association (NCSA) Power Rankings for Division II used to assess the academic and athletic standards of all NCAA and NAIA athletic programs.
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