MORAVIAN SOFTBALL SQUAD RANKED 15TH IN NFCA DIVISION III PRESEASON POLL

STARKVILLE, MS --- The Moravian College softball team has been ranked 15th in the nation in the 2007 National Fastpitch Coaches Association NCAA Division III Preseason Top 25 Poll released Wednesday.

Muskingum (OH) College, last year’s third place team, received one first-place vote and 186 points to hold down the top spot in the poll while defending national champion Rutgers University-Camden had a total of six first-place votes and 184 points to be second in the poll. Ithaca College received the remaining first-place vote and is third with 177 points. Moravian received 77 points for the second straight year in the preseason poll.

Moravian, under the direction of 14th-year head coach John Byrne (407-134), returns 14 players and nine starters from last year’s 37-9 squad that made its ninth consecutive trip to the NCAA Division III Tournament. The Greyhounds are also the seven-time defending Commonwealth Conference Champions and have added six talented newcomers to the roster.

Moravian is one of four teams from the East Region ranked with the Greyhounds being joined by Rutgers-Camden, ninth-ranked Ramapo College of New Jersey and 20th-ranked Rowan (NJ) University.

The Greyhounds, who begin their 2007 season at the Atlantic versus East Challenge in Virginia Beach, Virginia on Friday and Saturday, March 2nd and 3rd, will play two teams ranked in the NFCA Preseason Poll. Moravian will play top-ranked Muskingum on the first day of the NFCA Division III Leadoff Classic in Panama City, Florida on Friday, March 9th, and the Greyhounds are scheduled to take on 11th-ranked Louisiana College at the same tournament on Saturday, March 10th.

Two other teams on Moravian’s schedule received votes in the poll with the Greyhounds taking on the University of La Verne (CA) on March 9th at the Leadoff Classic and Roanoke (VA) College at the Atlantic versus East Challenge on March 3rd. La Verne was one spot out of the top 25 with 27 points while Roanoke had 12 points, which was tied for fifth of the schools also receiving votes.

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