Owls Picked Second In MASCAC Women's Hoop Poll
The Owls received 33 points and three first place votes, while current arch-rival Framingham State received 34 points and four first place votes to garner the top spot.
Four-time defending Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference women's basketball champ Westfield State has been picked to finish second this season in the league's preseason coaches' poll.
The Owls received 33 points and three first place votes, while current arch-rival Framingham State received 34 points and four first place votes to garner the top spot.
Westfield finished 10-2 in the league and in a tie for first in last year's regular season, then won the conference title out of the two-seed, defeating top-seed Worcester 84-73 on the road in the title game.
The Owls have compiled a 64-6 record vs. the league over the past five seasons, winning or sharing the loop's regular-season title in each of those years, and winning the league tournament in 2016-19, after losing on a buzzer beater in 2015.
Westfield did graduate the 2019 conference player of the year, in shooting guard Lucy Barrett, as well as 1,000-point scorer Kierra McCarthy and veteran guard Alison Hester, but the cupboard isn't bare at the Woodward Center.
The Owls return three-point sharpshooter Melissa Gray (Peabody, Mass.), who ranked third in the nation in 3-pointers made last year while scoring more than 17 points per game. Senior point guard Chelsea Moussette (Southampton/Hampshire Reg.) will run it back one more time, as she keys the Owls 'system' attack, with 5.5 assists per game, a 2.7-1 assist to turnover ratio, and two steals per game.
Westfield led the nation in seven NCAA Division III categories a year ago, including points per game (89.7), three-point field goals made and attempted, steals per game, turnovers forced and turnover margin.
Veteran role players Cayla Durkee (Georgetown, Mass.) , Taina Slaughter (Springfield, Mass./Chicopee), and Alyssa Camara (Quincy, Mass.) return, along with sophomore Siobhan Moriarty (Danvers, Mass.) and Bella Aiken (Pittsfield, Mass.), who will all likely step into bigger roles.
Westfield opens the season with a non-conference road game at Dean College on November 9, but the non-conference slate gets tougher from there, including a game at nationally-ranked Middlebury, a tournament at Williams College, and games with strong regional foes, Springfield, Albertus Magnus, Smith and WPI among others.
Framingham was 16-10 overall and 7-5 in the league a year ago. The Owls and Rams met three straight times in the league title game in 2016, '17 and '18. Last year's co-champ Worcester State was picked third, and Bridgewater fourth.