Women's Cross Country | 12/11/2025 12:00:00 PM

Saint Francis University has been awarded three of the seven NEC Sportsmanship Awards for the fall season. Women's soccer earned its fourth in a row and fifth overall, while men's and women's cross country also were honored with their fourth and third awards, respectively.
Women's soccer is now tied with men's tennis for the second-most in school history with five after garnering the distinction in 2010, 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025.

Men's cross country received its fourth sportsmanship honor, first since 2014, and also took home the distinction in 2010 and 2012. Women's cross country has the distinction of being second-year in a row and third time in team history. The squad also earned the honor in 2016.

Since the NEC Team Sportsmanship program was instituted in 2008-09, the Red Flash has won a conference-best 56 awards, followed by Sacred Heart (37), CCSU (35), Wagner (34), and LIU (31) to round out the top five.

Men's basketball leads the university with nine sportsmanship awards. Women's soccer (5), men's tennis (5), football (4), men's cross country (4), women's basketball (3), women's bowling (3), women's cross country (3), field hockey (3), women's golf (3), women's swimming (2), women's lacrosse (2), women's tennis (2), women's volleyball (2), men's outdoor track and field (2) and men's volleyball (2), men's soccer (1) and men's indoor track and field (1) has garnered the honor at least once in program history. 

Instituted by league Presidents in 2008, the awards are designed to acknowledge the team in each conference sport that, in the opinion of its peers, best demonstrates good sportsmanship in accordance with the NEC Principles of Sportsmanship and Standards of Conduct. Voting is conducted at the conclusion of each season by each team and head coach, who rank teams within the conference based on a set of criteria.