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PHILADELPHIA CHOSEN FIRST IN CACC WOMEN'S SOCCER PRESEASON POLL

August 16, 2007

NEW HAVEN, CT - Philadelphia University is the preseason choice to win the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) Women's Soccer regular-season championship according to a poll conducted by the league's 12 head coaches. The Lady Rams collected eight first-place votes and 139 overall points, edging Holy Family University, which garnered 134 points and three first-place nods.

Georgian Court University picked up one first-place vote and was the third in the poll with 120 points. Post University was fourth with 99 points and was followed by Dominican College (94), Wilmington College (83), Caldwell College (70), Goldey-Beacom College (61), Felician College (43), Nyack College (41), Chestnut Hill College (32) and Bloomfield College (20). Chestnut Hill will be competing in the CACC for the first time and will play a full conference schedule, but will not be eligible to play in the conference tournament. The Griffins were previously a member of NCAA Division III.

Philadelphia is the defending CACC Tournament Champion and also tied for the regular-season title with Holy Family. Both squads finished with 8-1-1 records. The Lady Rams defeated the Tigers in a penalty kick shootout, 5-4, to capture the tournament championship. The game was decided by penalty kicks after going through two overtime periods tied at 1-1. Philadelphia concluded the season with a 12-4-3 overall record.

Philadelphia returns nine starters and among them are three All-CACC selections in junior goalie Sara Hall, senior defender Michele Petruzzi and senior midfielder Brianna Reinford. Hall led the CACC with a 0.91 goals-against average and seven shutouts and was fifth with a .842 save percentage. Reinford was the MVP of the 2006 CACC Tournament and tied for the team lead with 15 points (six goals, three assists).

Holy Family returns two All-Conference players in senior forward Kaitlin Gavaghan and senior defender Jenn Hamill. Gavaghan tied for fourth in the CACC with 26 points and stood third with 11 goals. She also tied for first with four game-winning goals. The Tigers went 11-6-3 overall last season.

Georgian Court went from being picked seventh in the 2006 pre-season poll to finish third with a 7-1-2 CACC record to go with an 11-7-3 overall mark. The Lions went 2-8-1 in conference play and 2-14-1 overall in 2005, marking one of the best turnarounds in all of Division II.

The CACC's leading scorer from 2006 will be returning in Wilmington's Begum Malali. The senior forward led the way with 40 points and 18 goals last season.

The complete 2007 CACC Women's Soccer preseason poll is below.

2007 CACC Women's Soccer Preseason Coaches' Poll

School 2006 Records Points

1. Philadelphia (8) 12-4-3/8-1-1 CACC - 139

2. Holy Family (3) 11-6-3/8-1-1 - 134

3. Georgian Court (1) 11-7-3/7-1-2 - 120

4. Post 11-8-4/7-2-1 - 99

5. Dominican 6-11-2/5-4-1 - 94

6. Wilmington 10-9/4-6 - 83

7. Caldwell 7-11-1/4-5-1 - 70

8. Goldey-Beacom 6-10-1/5-5 - 61

9. Felician 3-16-1/1-8-1 - 43

10. Nyack 4-12-2/1-7-2 - 41

11. Chestnut Hill 9-6-3/6-4-1* - 32

12. Bloomfield 1-15/0-10 - 20

()-First Place Votes

*-Record as a DIII member of the NEAC