CAMBRIDGE, Mass.-- The University of Vermont Catamounts are favored to win the 2009 America East Women’s Basketball Championship according to the preseason coaches’ poll announced today. With five first-place votes and 61 total points, Vermont narrowly outpaced defending America East Champion University of Hartford, which garnered the remaining four first-place votes and received 60 points. The league’s nine head coaches were not permitted to vote for their own team.
Boston University received 50 points to finish the poll in third, while University at Albany and UMBC rounded out the top five with 41 and 31 points, respectively. Binghamton University (25 points), University of New Hampshire (22), University of Maine (18) and Stony Brook University (16) finished out the nine-team poll.
The 2009 America East Championship will take place March 12-15 at Hartford’s Chase Family Arena in the Reich Family Pavilion. The winner will receive an automatic berth into the NCAA Championship where the league champion has posted wins in two of the past three years.
Vermont (24-9 overall, 13-3 America East) began last season’s America East Championship on a high note, sweeping both the Player of the Year (Courtnay Pilypaitis) and Defensive Player of the Year (May Kotsopoulos) at the championship banquet, but the tournament ended for the second-seeded Catamounts with a double overtime loss to Boston U. in the semifinals. Despite that loss, Vermont earned a bid to the Women’s NIT and hosted Dartmouth in the first round before falling to Boston College in the second round. Guards Pilypaitis (16.8 ppg, 5.5 apg) and Kotsopoulos (12.6 ppg, 2.0 spg) both return for their junior seasons, along with senior guard Amy Rosenkrantz (12.5 ppg, 4.4 rpg), who garnered second-team all-conference honors last season. A crown for the Catamounts in 2009 would be their first conference championship since 2000.
The Hawks (28-6, 14-2) have been perennial favorites in recent years, proving capable by winning three of the last four titles and capturing a win in each of their last two trips to the NCAA Tournament. Hartford broke its single-season win mark with 28 victories in 2007-08 and defeated seven seed Syracuse in the first round of the national tourney. Coach Jen Rizzotti lost a first-team all-conference player in Danielle Hood, but has juniors Erica Beverly and Diana Delva to fill the void in the post. Beverly, a first-team and all-defensive recipient last year, and Delva, a second-team selection a year ago, are both preseason all-conference picks this season. The Hawks enter the season unbeaten in 26 straight games at home in the Chase Family Arena, tied for the longest such streak in the nation.
Boston U. (20-12, 11-5) has appeared in five of the last six conference championship title games, getting there last year by virtue of a double-overtime win over Vermont in the semifinals. The Terriers finished third in the regular season standings last year and are picked to finish in familiar territory for the upcoming season. Trying to take Boston U. a step further will be senior forward Jesyka Burks-Wiley, who led the team in both scoring (13.2 ppg) and rebounding (5.8 rpg) last year, and senior guard Christine Kinneary who dished out the second-most assists ever in America East during the 2007-08 campaign with 214. Burks-Wiley and Kinneary were second- and third-team all-conference honorees last year and Burks-Wiley was named to this year’s preseason all-conference team by the league’s head coaches.
Albany (13-18, 10-6) exceeded expectations a year ago, finishing fourth in the standings and winning a quarterfinal game of the America East Championship after being picked eighth in the preseason poll. For 2008 America East Coach of the Year Trina Patterson and a more experienced Great Danes squad, the benchmark is placed higher this year despite graduating their top two scorers from a year ago. Junior guard Britney McGee is the top returning starter in scoring (9.1 ppg), rebounding (3.3 rpg) and assists (3.0 apg), while all-rookie Janea Aiken returns as the second most-productive scorer with 8.3 points per game in 2007-08.
A year removed from their 2007 America East Championship run, the Retrievers (9-21, 5-11) finished sixth last year and fell to the Catamounts in the quarterfinals. In the process, the league discovered a productive scorer in junior guard Carlee Cassidy, who took home first-team all-conference and enters this season as a member of the preseason all-conference team. Cassidy led America East in scoring with 17.0 points per game and 67 three-pointers. Eight newcomers, including seven freshmen, join UMBC in 2008-09 hoping to make an impact from the get-go.
Binghamton (11-19, 9-7) had high expectations last season with two preseason all-conference picks, but the Bearcats finished fifth and lost in the first round of the America East Championship to Albany. Four of the five players lost during the offseason were from the front court, but first-year head coach Nicole Scholl stocked up this year’s class of six newcomers with three forwards, one center and two guards. Senior Laura Franceski aims to be the focal point of the Bearcats’ post as the conference’s top returning shot-blocker who also recorded 9.4 points and 5.3 rebounds per game last year.
New Hampshire (7-22, 4-12) head coach Kristin Cole hopes to get the Wildcats back on the right track in 2008-09 after getting bounced from the conference tournament after one game each of the past two seasons. Amy Simpson (11.3 ppg, 2.8 apg) leads a strong junor class of five while reigning America East Rookie of the Year Denise Beliveau (10.0 ppg, 6.2 rpg) returns for her sophomore campaign.
The Black Bears (7-23, 4-12) have won the most league titles, seven, in America East women’s basketball and hope to notch the eighth. Three starters are back for Cindy Blodgett’s squad in senior forward Colleen Kilmurray, junior forward Brittany Boser and junior guard Amanda Tewksbury.
Stony Brook (8-23, 2-14) finished ninth last season, but won the first round match-up of the America East Championship before falling to Hartford in the quarterfinals. Head coach Michele Cherry will carry a team of five juniors, five sophomores and two freshmen, led by top returning scorer Kirsten Jeter (9.3 ppg).