BROOKLYN, NY-Saint Francis women's basketball picked up seven first-place votes and claimed the top spot in the Northeast Conference pre-season poll voted on by the conference coaches and released at NEC Media Day.
 
The Red Flash join the men's team atop the pre-season poll, SFU is followed by defending NEC regular season and tournament champion Robert Morris who got the other three first-place votes. Bryant, last year's tournament runner-up was picked third, followed by Sacred Heart.
 
Central Connecticut, St. Francis Brooklyn, Fairleigh Dickinson, Mount St. Mary's, LIU Brooklyn, and Wagner rounded out the poll.
 
"It's exciting and humbling to be picked atop the pre-season poll," Head Coach Joe Haigh said. "At the same time, it doesn't change anything, we still have a lot of work ahead of us this year, but it's nice to be recognized for the work we have done so far."
 
The Red Flash return four starters from last year's team that finished tied for second in the NEC regular season and finished 17-15 overall. SFU set NEC history last year by picking up the conference's first post-season win in history, when they defeated Campbell in the Women's Basketball Invitational.
 
Headlining the return are Jessica Kovatch (Phillipsburg, N.J./Phillipsburg) and Ace Harrison (Baltimore, MD/Digital Harbor (Maryland)), both of whom were named to the Pre-season All-NEC team after All-NEC first-team nods a season ago.
 
Kovatch is coming off a season where she averaged 21.2 points, 3.4 rebounds and just over two steals per game. Highlighting the season was her 45-point performance against CCSU at home last season and crossing the 1,000 career-point mark in her 47^th career game, tying her for 20^th fastest to that mark in NCAA women's basketball history.
 
Harrison is the reigning NEC Defensive Player of the Year after averaging nearly four steals per game last season, placing her top-10 in the Nation. She tied the national single-game high with 11 in the win at Central Connecticut. The graduate transfer also averaged nearly 13 points per game on a highly-efficient 47 percent shooting.
 
Saint Francis opens the season next Thursday with an exhibition against the University of Pitt-Johnstown at 7 p.m. That exhibition follows the annual Saint Francis tip-off luncheon that afternoon.
 
The Red Flash will open the regular season at Toledo in the Women's Pre-Season NIT on Friday, November 10^th with a 7 p.m. tip-off from the Glass City.