Women's soccer picked seventh by NEAC coaches
The Wells College women's soccer team was picked seventh in the 14-team North Eastern Athletic Conference in the 2016 NEAC Women's Soccer preseason coaches' poll.
The Express went 7-12-0 overall and 6-6-0 in the NEAC during the 2015 season en route to a seventh-place finish, and narrowly missed the conference tournament. This season, with the addition of Bryn Athyn College in the women's soccer conference, seven teams will qualify for the NEAC playoffs.
Wells finished its 2015 season by winning six of its final nine games in head coach Mara Primmer's second season at the helm. The Express set program records 45 goals and 26 assists for 116 points of offense.
Wells enters the season returning four all-conference players from 2016 including the team's top-three leadings scorers in Yanna Osaskalo, Mackenzie Maloney and Amber Welsh. Osaskalo and Maloney shared the team goal-scoring lead in 2015 with 11 goals each. Welsh had six goals and four assists.
The Express begins its season with a road game Thursday, Sept. 1 at SUNY Canton. Wells will play its first home game Wednesday, Sept. 7 and the open the NEAC portion of the schedule with a noon game Sunday, Sept. 11 against Keuka.
Three-time defending conference champions Penn State Berks were picked to finish first in the conference and received all 13 possible first-place votes. Penn State Abington was second, and Lancaster Bible College and SUNY Polytechnic Institute were third and fourth.
The preseason poll rankings were conducted by the NEAC women's soccer coaches, with each coach ranking out all teams but their own using a staggered points system (13 points for a first-place vote, 12 points for second, etc.). No self-voting was allowed. | Full story at NEAC website
2016 NEAC Women's Soccer Preseason Coaches' Poll
Rank, School, Points
(First-place votes in parentheses)
1. Penn State Berks (13), 169
2. Penn State Abington, 152
3. Lancaster Bible College (1), 128*
4. SUNY Polytechnic Institute, 128*
5. Keuka College, 125
6. Penn College, 115
7. Wells College, 94
8. Cazenovia College, 82
9. Morrisville State College, 79
10. SUNY Cobleskill, 57
11. Bryn Athyn College, 45
12. Gallaudet University, 41*
13. Wilson College, 41*
14. College of Saint Elizabeth, 18
*Ties broken by higher ordinal number points
