Women's Basketball Picked to Finish Eighth in CCC Preseason Poll

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – For the third-straight year, the University of New England women's basketball team is the unanimous selection atop the Commonwealth Coast Conference Women's Basketball Preseason Coaches' Poll. The three-time defending CCC Champion Nor'Easters earned all 10 first place votes for a total of 100 points in the poll conducted by the league's 10 head women's basketball coaches.

After winning the CCC Championship game 81-72 over third-seeded Curry and earning the Conference's automatic qualifier last year, the Nor'Easters defeated Catholic, 54-50, in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Their season would end in round two when UNE was handed a 91-75 defeat by 2014 national champion Farleigh Dickinson University-Florham.

Roger Williams claimed the second-spot in the poll accumulating 90 points. Western New England (74 points), Endicott (67), and Salve Regina (60) rounded out the top-five.

Curry (50), Eastern Nazarene (42), Wentworth (33), Gordon (18), and Nichols (15) were slotted in the six through 10 spots to close out the poll.

After three straight seasons of finishing eighth, the Wentworth Institute of Technology women's basketball team is poised to make a run at another postseason berth and improve upon its standing within the Commonwealth Coast Conference. Seven players return for third-year head coach Matt Phippard, who has added a solid recruiting class to go with his veterans. Senior Carly Rogers (Scarborough, Maine) returns after being named to the All-CCC Third Team as a junior. Rogers is coming off a junior season that saw her average 12.3 points, 8.7 rebounds, and 2.0 steals per game. Senior Rachael Camara (Fall River, Mass.) averaged 9.6 points, 6.2 rebounds, and 2.0 assists per game and classmate Megan McLaughlin (Southington, Conn.) had a junior season that saw her average 3.9 points, 2.8, and 3.0 assists per game. Junior Kellie Messer (Hollis, N.H.) is coming off a sophomore season that saw her average 3.8 points and 3.8 rebounds per game.

The CCC women's basketball teams will kick off their quest for the 2015-16 conference title this weekend with the start of the regular season. The conference slate is scheduled to start on Dec. 2 with the top eight teams in the regular-season conference standings qualifying for the CCC Tournament. The tournament gets underway Tuesday, Feb. 23 with quarterfinal action and culminates on Saturday, Feb. 27 with the CCC Championship game.

2015-16 CCC Women's Basketball Preseason Coaches' Poll