For Immediate Release: August 22, 2006
Contact: John Hartrick (hartrick@binghamton.edu)
Phone: 607-777-6800

BU women's soccer picked third in America East preseason poll

VESTAL, N.Y. - The Binghamton women's soccer team has been picked third out of nine teams in the America East Coaches' Preseason Poll, the conference announced today. That's exactly where head coach Jeff Leightman's squad wound up last season.

The Bearcats received 49 points, including a first-place vote, behind reigning conference champion Boston (61 points) and 2005 runnerup Maine (58).

"I like the fact that we have been recognized as one of the top teams," Leightman said. "Boston and Maine deserve to be in the top spots ... it's hard to vote against them. But we feel in our short time in the conference, we've developed ourselves as one of the top teams. Hopefully we'll continue that run. It's going to be an incredibly tight race, though. No team can rest on its previous success."

Leightman returns seven starters and 18 letterwinners from his 10-6-4 squad that went 5-2-1 in conference play. The Bearcats then advanced to the America East semifinals before being eliminated by Maine on penalty kicks.

Binghamton opens its season this Friday with a game against Georgetown at the Navy Tournament in Annapolis, Md. The Bearcats will also square off against Navy on Sunday.

Rank	Team (1st place votes)	Points
1.	Boston Univ. (8)	61
2.	Maine (2)	58
3.	BINGHAMTON (1)	49
4.	New Hampshire	40
5.	Vermont	35
6.	Hartford	27
7.	UMBC	24
8.	Stony Brook	22
9.	Albany	8