Women's Cross Country |
Field Hockey |
Men's Cross Country |
Volleyball |
NE-10 Presidents’ Cup leading Skyhawks earn top ten rank with four fall NCAA Tournament appearances
NACDA Learfield Cup Standings Release
EASTON, Mass. (December 12, 2014) – Northeast-10 Conference Presidents’ Cup leading Stonehill College is ranked eighth in the first 2014-15 Learfield Sports Directors’ Cup Division II standings announced by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) at the conclusion of the NCAA Division II Fall Championships Festival in which Stonehill had three teams represented.
Stonehill earned 187 points by way of its four NCAA Tournament appearances in men’s and women’s cross country, field hockey and volleyball. The Skyhawks are the top Northeast-10 Conference program in the Learfield Cup standings, which is topped by Grand Valley State University, winners of nine Directors’ Cups, including 2013-14, with 373 points on the heels of National Championships in women’s cross country and women’s soccer in Louisville, Kentucky, over the weekend. The College of Saint Rose ranks second in the Learfield Cup standings among NE-10 members in 30th place (108 points), while Adelphi University is ranked 55th (81).
“I’d like to congratulate our fall teams for their incredible success as measured by these rankings,” said Brendan J. Sullivan, Director of Intercollegiate Athletics at Stonehill. “Qualifying for an NCAA Championship is the goal of each program at the start of the year and to have four programs reach their respective championship is a tremendous honor for Stonehill. I’d like to thank our student-athletes and coaches for all of their diligent work and commitment to improving our proud tradition.”
Stonehill, which leads the NE-10 Presidents’ Cup standings following the fall season, earned 55 points from both field hockey and women’s cross country, 52 points from men’s cross country and 25 points from volleyball. Field hockey reached the national semifinals and is credited with a third place finish, while women’s cross country placed 19th as a team and men’s cross country finished 22nd at the NCAA Cross Country Championships and volleyball received a 33rd place finish for reaching the NCAA East Regional Tournament. It marked the second NCAA Tournament bid for the volleyball program, the sixth for field hockey (fourth national semifinal), 12th NCAA Championship appearance for men’s cross country and 15th for women’s cross country.
Stonehill’s eighth place standing is the highest ever at any stage of the Learfield Cup since NACDA and USA TODAY developed the award to reward overall achievement in NCAA Championships. The Skyhawks previous high following the fall sports season is a 23rd place standing in 2003 and the College’s highest ever final standing is a 20th place finish in 2009-10.
Stonehill, which finished the 2013-14 academic year with six Northeast-10 Championships, has already won four after the fall season. Stonehill won 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 NE-10 championships in field hockey and women’s tennis during the fall season. 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.
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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