Wednesday, February 2, 2011

MORAVIAN SOFTBALL SQUAD RANKED 7TH IN 2011 NFCA DIVISION III PRESEASON POLL

STARKVILLE, MS --- The Moravian College softball team has been ranked seventh in the 2011 National Fastpitch Coaches Association NCAA Division III Preseason Top 25 Poll released Wednesday. 

Linfield (OR) College received seven first-place votes and holds down the top spot with 199 points while Eastern Connecticut State University is second with 172 points.  Louisiana College is third with 171 points while DePauw (IN) University is ranked fourth with 158 points followed by Luther (IA) College with 146 points. 

Messiah College is sixth in the poll at 145 points while the Greyhounds have 129 points in seventh place, nine points ahead of Ithaca (NY) College.  Last year’s defending national champion East Texas Baptist University received the final first place vote and is tenth with 109 points, trailing Christopher Newport University, which is ninth with 114 points.  Messiah and Louisiana are the only two schools in the top ten that did not compete in the 2010 NCAA Division III World Series.

Moravian, under the direction of 18th-year head coach John Byrne (544-173), returns 13 players and ten starters from last year’s 34-15 squad that won its third straight Landmark Conference Championship.  The program also made the NCAA Division III Tournament for the 12th time in 13 seasons last year, winning its third NCAA Regional Championship and making its third trip to the NCAA Division III World Series.  Coach Byrne has added another nine players to the roster this year.

The Greyhounds begin their 2011 season with a trip to the National Training Center in Clermont, Florida with ten total games between March 7th through 12th.  Moravian has three teams on its schedule that received votes in the Top 25 Poll – The College of New Jersey, Lebanon Valley College and Susquehanna University.

The complete poll can be found at http://nfca.org/top25/index.php?cat_id=3.