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Oct. 22, 2008
Garden City, N.Y. - Four-time NCAA Championship participant Sacred Heart stands as the coaches' preseason favorite to capture the first-ever Northeast Conference bowling crown. The 2008 ECAC champions garnered five first-place votes to finish directly ahead of former national champion Fairleigh Dickinson, which garnered the remaining two first-place nods, with Adelphi University selected third in a poll of the league's head coaches. The conference office released the poll result as a prelude to its inaugural campaign on the lanes. Adelphi edged out Kutztown for third place in the voting followed by Saint Peter's in the fifth spot and St. Francis (NY) taking sixth. Embarking on its first season of competition since the program's founding earlier this year, Long Island rounds out the poll in seventh. Adelphi enjoyed a number of firsts last season, head coach Robert Cincotta's second at the helm. Sophomore Kristen Hayes (Brick, NJ/Brick Twp.) was responsible for one of them when she posted the highest-ever finished by an Adelphi bowler at the NEWCBC Individual Championships. Hayes' finish made her the first Panther in program history to receive all-conference recognition (honorable mention). Prior to that feat, Hayes and classmate Danielle Locurto (Mt. Sinai, NY/Mt. Sinai) became the first Panthers to qualify for the individual championship bracket at the annual ECAC Championships. Hayes, seeded eighth, out-dueled No. 1 seed Nicole Toto of FDU, 190-187, before falling by the slimmest of margins to runner-up Sarah Pelletier of Sacred Heart. Locurto knocked down an impressive 219 pins in her first round match, but the score was not enough to topple eventual champion, and four-time All-American, Vicky Spratford's 235. The Panthers nearly captured the ECAC team crown, falling to Sacred Heart four games to one in the championship bout. Adelphi earned the chance to play in the title match by knocking off national power FDU in the semifinal with the help of a 300 Baker Game. The perfect Baker Game was only the third-ever of its kind in NCAA history. Hayes and Locurto only begin the list of accomplished returnees that Cincotta hopes can push the Panthers further up the national rankings. Junior Dianna Molenko (Bellmore, NY/Mepham), a co-captain last season, claimed All-Tournament Team honors at the Morgan State Invitational thanks to a 205.6 average and a huge performance (258) against 2007 NCAA champion Vanderbilt. At the same tournament, senior Valerie Passaniti (Hartsdale, NY/Woodlands), a former National Junior College Athletic Association All-American at West Chester Community College, knocked down 216 pins in a victory over nationally-ranked Arkansas State. Instituting women's bowling as its 22nd sport of sponsorship, the Northeast Conference, which enters its 28th year as a Division I athletic league, instantaneously becomes a national leader in the collegiate bowling arena due to the prior accomplishments of its distinguished membership. Fairleigh Dickinson is only two years removed from its NCAA National Championship. Sacred Heart is the defending ECAC champion with Adelphi claiming the runner-up position at the prestigious championship meet. The three aforementioned programs along with Kutztown and St. Francis (NY) were amongst the nation's top teams last season according to the National Ten Pin Coaches' Association Poll. Five of the NEC's seven members, with Kutztown and newly-founded Long Island being the lone exceptions, became extremely familiar with one another through their prior membership in the now-defunct North East Collegiate Women's Bowling Conference (NEWCBC). The five programs, along with New Jersey City State, formed the partnership, which the NCAA did not recognize as an official conference, for scheduling purposes. The six teams came together to play four conference meets per season. Adelphi opens up the 2008-09 season on October 31 at the FDU Invitational in Elmwood, New Jersey. 2008-09 Northeast Conference 1. Sacred Heart (5) First place votes in parentheses (). |
