Sophomore Sarah Hickey will carry her perfect singles record into the NCAA Tournament for the second-straight year.

Stonehill Earns Fifth NCAA Tournament Bid,
Will Host East Regional #1

Fourth-seeded Skyhawks will open regional against Goldey-Beacom College

EASTON, Mass. (April 28, 2010) – Stonehill College has earned a spot in the NCAA Division II Women's Tennis Tournament and will serve as host of one of two East Regionals on Thursday and Friday, May 6-7.

Stonehill (17-3, 12-1 NE-10) earns its second-straight trip to the NCAA Tournament with its fifth bid in program history, overall. The Skyhawks, runners up in both the Northeast-10 regular season and tournament, are the fourth-seed in the eight-team East Regional, which is broken up into two brackets. Stonehill will host one of those brackets for the second-straight year, opening tournament play against fifth-seeded Goldey-Beacom College (13-4, 7-1 CACC) on Thursday, May 6, at 2 p.m. Top-seeded Concordia (N.Y.) College (15-1, 8-0 CACC) will face eighth-seeded Holy Family University (13-7, 6-2 CACC) in the other opening round game at Charles Watt Tennis Courts at 11 a.m. The winners of Thursday's opening round games will square off on Friday at 11 a.m., for a spot at the NCAA Division II Championships in Altamonte Springs, Fla., May 12-15.

Freshman Paige Frost is unbeaten in her first collegiate season.

Stonehill will be seeking its second-straight trip to the “Sweet Sixteen” after making its first trip with a 5-4 triumph over Queens (N.Y.) College at Watt Courts last spring. Queens will serve as host of the other East Regional bracket, May 7-8, which also includes third-seeded and NE-10 Champions Southern New Hampshire University (19-1, 13-0 NE-10), sixth-seeded Adelphi University (14-3, 11-2 NE-10) and seventh-seeded Saint Michael's College (12-8, 10-3 NE-10).

Stonehill, winners of eight of its last nine matches after being dealt a 5-2 setback to Southern New Hampshire in the NE-10 championship on Sunday, is led by a trio of first team All-Conference honorees at the bottom of its lineup. Sophomore Sarah Hickey (Lee, Mass./Lee) is a perfect 34-0 over her collegiate career in singles play, including a 14-0 clip this season at No. 4 singles. Freshman Paige Frost (Brigantine, N.J./Holy Spirit) is unbeaten in her first collegiate season at 16-0, including a 12-0 mark at fifth singles. Classmate Chelsea Haedrich (Islip, N.Y./Islip) has posted a 12-1 singles record this season, including a 9-1 ledger at sixth singles.

Hickey and Haedrich have also combined to post a 7-0 mark at third singles since being paired up midway through the spring season. Stonehill has also earned NCAA bids in 2002, 2005, 2006 and 2009.

2010 NCAA II Women's Tournament
East Regional #1
(hosted by Stonehill College)

Thursday, May 6
#8 Holy Family (13-7, 6-2 CACC) vs. #1 Concordia (15-1, 8-0 CACC), 11 a.m.
#5 Goldey-Beacom (13-4, 7-1 CACC) at #4 Stonehill (17-3, 12-1 NE-10), 2 p.m.

Friday, May 7
Thursday winners, 11 a.m.