Brooklyn, N.Y. - The defending Northeast Conference champion Long Island University women's tennis team was predicted to finish second in the league during the 2010 campaign, the conference announced today. The Blackbirds garnered four first-place votes, finishing behind Quinnipiac in a poll of the league's head coaches.

 

Long Island returns four players from last year's NEC title team, including reigning NEC Player of the Year Selma Babic. Last season, the Blackbirds met Quinnipiac in the NEC final for the sixth straight year, finally knocking off the conference monolith for the school's first NEC tennis title.

 

The Bobcats garnered five first-place votes to top the coaches' poll. Fairleigh Dickinson received one first-place vote to place third. Sacred Heart and Mount St. Mary's were tied for fourth, followed by Monmouth, Robert Morris and Saint Francis (Pa.). Wagner and St. Francis (N.Y.) rounded out the poll. Coaches were not allowed to vote for their own teams.

 

The Blackbirds will kick off the spring season on Friday, Feb. 5, hosting Albany at the USTA Tennis Center at Noon.