Bethany Tighe's accuracy from the free throw line ranks second in the Northeast-10 and 30th in the country.

North Easton, Mass. - Spurred on by their 12-2 start, several women's basketball student-athletes find themselves among the national leaders in numerous statistical categories in the NCAA's most recent release of its nationwide statistics.

In addition, the Skyhawks made a significant jump in the national polls, moving from No. 18 up to No. 13, supplanting Southern Connecticut as the highest ranked Northeast-10 team. Franklin Pierce, who defeated the Owls but fell to Stonehill, made the biggest move, going from No. 23 last week to No. 14 this week.

The Northeast-10's top team in terms of points allowed, the Skyhawks rank 12^th in the nation in scoring defense, yielding just 53.4 points a game. UMass-Lowell (74) scored the most points in a game this season against the Skyhawks, but it took them double overtime to do so. The last two Stonehill opponents failed to reach 50 points.

The Skyhawks do an excellent job of contesting shots and rank 19^th in the NCAA in field goal percentage defense at 34.4 percent. No team this season has shot better than 40 percent against Stonehill, while three others have failed to even reach 30 percent.

Because of their stout defense the Skyhawks are winning their contests by an average of 15.6 points, ranking 31st in the country tied with Indiana (Pa.). The biggest margin of victory for Stonehill came in their season-opening 83-37 win over Concordia (N.Y.). They have also scored 30+ point win over Northeast-10 foes, Southern New Hampshire (87-50) and St. Rose (81-49).

Led by the accuracy of junior Bethany Tighe (North Easton, Mass.), who ranks 30th in the nation in free throw percentage (86.7), the Skyhawks sit at 20th in the country from the line at 75 percent.

Erika Stupinski (Topsham, Maine) leads the Northeast-10 in assists and ranks fourth in the country in helpers per game at 7.8 every time out. She has four double-digit assist performances this season, including back-to-back 12 assist showings in Miami at the Cruzin Classic. As a team, the Skyhawks are 18^th in the current rankings at 18.1 per game. Stupinski's 3.0 steal a night have her at 26th in the nation in picks per game.

Kelsey Simonds' (Middleboro, Mass.) monster season has her in the top 100 in scoring (16.1, 86th), rebounding (8.6, 62nd) and blocked shots (2.3, 15th) per game.

The next four contests for Stonehill are crucial, as they play two games at home and two on the road, with two of those games coming against the No. 14 Ravens and the No. 17 Owls.

The four game stretch begins with a road contest at Merrimack on Thursday at 5:30 p.m.