Seahawks receive regional ranking for first time since 2001

NEWPORT, R.I. - The Salve Regina University football team completed its most successful season in a decade with a No. 10 ranking in the 2010 New England Division III football poll.

The Seahawks - who receiving 12 points in the poll - closed out the 2010 campaign with a 6-0 win over Nichols College on Saturday, giving them a 6-4 record for the season and a 5-2 mark in the New England Football Conference (NEFC). The five-game win streak is the longest for the program since the 1999 season, while the six wins is the highest mark since the 2000 season, when they posted a 7-3 record. The last time Salve Regina was ranked in the poll was Oct. 8, 2001, when the Seahawks were 3-1 with wins over Coast Guard (17-14), MIT (32-11), and Western New England (12-0).

"This is a nice accomplishment for our program, especially considering where we stood a few weeks ago," said first-year head coach Bob Chesney (above). "But as I said after the game on Saturday, a 6-4 record is fine for now, but it's not where we want to be and it's certainly not where we're going. We lost to the top two teams in our division by a total of six points, but we weren't ready to win at that time. We learned from those losses and turned our season around. Our kids will head into the offseason fully motivated by those six points and come back hungrier to bring a division title and an NCAA playoff berth to Salve Regina."

This season, Salve Regina boasted one of the best defense units not only in the conference, but in all of Division III (236 schools). The Seahawks led the NEFC in scoring defense (11.0), total defense (227.5), rushing defense (94.3), sacks (33), and turnover margin (1.40; +14). Nationally, the Seahawks closed the regular season ninth in scoring defense, 10th in total defense, 12th in pass efficiency defense (91.79), 14th in sacks, 16th in turnover margin, and 19th in pass defense.

Williams topped the poll with 226 points, receiving 19 of a possible 23 first-place votes. Springfield was second with 185 points and one first-place vote, and Maine Maritime (two first-place votes) and Trinity (one first-place vote) tied for third with 179 points each. Amherst (145) was fourth, followed by Endicott (117), Framingham State (85), Norwich (64), Western New England (59), and SRU.