CCC Pre-season Coaches' Poll: Women's Lacrosse No. 4
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – Defending Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) Women's Lacrosse Regular-Season and Tournament Champion Endicott is poised to repeat the feat in 2018 as the Gulls were selected as the preseason favorite in the 2018 CCC Preseason Coaches' Poll. They collected 79 points in the voting, including eight of the first place votes.
Last season, Endicott put together a perfect conference season. It went 8-0 in conference play (12-3 overall) and earned the No. 1 seed in the CCC Championship Tournament. Receiving a bye directly into the semifinal round, the Gulls picked up a dominating 12-5 victory over No. 5 seed Gordon and then had a convincing 14-5 win over No. 2 Roger Williams in the Tournament Championship game.
The Hawks, which were denied a Tournament Championship repeat last year by the Gulls, were picked second in the poll with 70 points and the final first place vote. A year ago, the Hawks posted a 7-1 conference mark (13-4 overall).
The University of New England, a CCC Tournament Semifinalist in 2017, was picked third in the poll with 62 points. UNE went 6-2 in league play (10-8 overall) last year. The fourth and fifth spots in this year's voting were occupied by two teams that reached the CCC Quarterfinals a year ago. Salve Regina earned 49 points to claim the fourth spot, while Western New England collected 44 points to land in fifth.
Gordon (35 points), Curry (31), Nichols (21), and Wentworth (14) made up the bottom half of this year's rankings.
The Seahawks will look to continue their success from 2017 after the team posted its most wins in the previous five seasons and reached the playoffs for the second time under head coach Bill Villareal, who now enters his fourth season.
The Seahawks will feature of mix of both experienced and talented young players. The team returns its top two scorers, Maddie Villareal (Portsmouth, R.I.) and Katie Kline (Brookfield, Conn.), both of whom were named All-CCC players in 2017.
Kline joins fellow senior Brianna Wilcox (Somers, Conn.) and juniors Kerri Beland(Attleboro, Mass.) and Lindsey Smith (North Attleboro, Mass.) as captains in 2018.
Click HERE to view the whole 2017 CCC women's lacrosse schedule.