NEW LONDON — The Colby-Sawyer College women’s tennis team is the 2018 favorite to win the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) title, according to a preseason poll.
Colby-Sawyer (17-6), led by 10th-year head coach Barry Schoonmaker, enters its first season in the GNAC as the favorite. The Chargers received 57 points and four of the possible eight-first place votes. Colby-Sawyer has advanced to the NCAA Tournament in each of the past six seasons.
The Chargers will begin their first GNAC campaign at home with non-league matchups against UMass Boston and Gordon on Friday, Aug. 31. The team will play its first GNAC contest on Sept. 8 at home against Suffolk. A rematch with Johnson & Wales will be on the following Saturday in Rhode Island.
JWU finished second in the poll with 56 points and one first-place vote and is the reigning two-time GNAC champion. The Wildcats went 15-2 overall last year, including an unblemished 6-0 mark in GNAC regular-season play.
Their only two losses came at the hands of Colby-Sawyer, an 8-1 defeat last September before the NCAA Tournament setback this past May. Eastern Nazarene finished fifth in the preseason poll as the Lions join the GNAC as an associate member in both women’s and men’s tennis in 2018-19 and beyond.
Simmons, which won eight straight GNAC titles from 2008-2015, finished third in the poll with three first-place votes and 49 points overall. Regis took the fourth position in the voting with 39 points.
Preseason Poll
Place Team Points 1st Pl.
1. Colby-Sawyer 57 4
2. Johnson & Wales 56 1
3. Simmons 49 3
4. Regis 39
5. Eastern Nazarene 32
6. Suffolk 31
7. Saint Joseph (CT) 16
8. Albertus Magnus8
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