WINTHROP, Mass. – With NCAA Division III Basketball beginning Tuesday, November 8, the Great Northeast Athletic Conference is pleased to announce its 2022-23 GNAC Women’s Basketball Preseason Poll, voted for by the league’s head coaches.
Emmanuel College led with nine first-place votes and 74 points in the North Division, while Albertus Magnus College took the top spot in the South Division with 10 of a possible first-place vote of 13 and 88 points overall. The two teams will meet head-to-head on Saturday, December 3rd.
Emmanuel won his third consecutive GNAC Championship under the legendary head coach last winter Andy Yosinoff. The Saints’ GNAC renaissance comes after a five-year title hiatus that came after seven straight conference crowns from 2007-13.
Behind Emmauel in the north, Saint Joseph’s College of Maine, led by the longtime head coach, received four first-place votes and 69 points Mike McDevitt. While the Monks have lost to Emmanuel in each of their last three GNAC title games, SJC won four league titles over a dominant five-year period from 2014-18.
The Monks are bringing back plenty of performance from a team that had a 22-5 record last winter – including a 14-2 mark in conference play – as four players averaging at least 20 minutes a game came into this one season are back. St. Joe’s will kick off the 2022-23 season with two games in the Gordon College Tip-Off tournament, when the Royal Blues take on Eastern Nazarene College on Friday at 5:30 p.m. and the Fighting Scots on Saturday at 3:00 p.m .
Regis College and the University of Saint Joseph (CT) combined for three top votes, finishing second and third, respectively, behind Albertus on the South Division side of the poll.
Due to last winter’s unfortunate surge in COVID, GNAC was forced to forgo its original schedule of division games. This season, GNAC will resume its divisional landscape, with each school playing each divisional opponent twice (home and away) and each non-divisional opponent once. The six-team North Division will play 17 games; The seven-team South Division will play 18 games.
All of these games count towards a team’s GNAC record. The top 4 seeds in each division will earn spots in the GNAC tournament, beginning with the crossover quarterfinals game on Tuesday, February 21st.
2022 GNAC Women’s Basketball Preseason Poll
NORTH DEPARTMENT
1. Emmanuel (9) – 74
2. Saint Josephs Maine (4) – 69
3. River – 48
4. Norwich-39
5. Colby Sawyer – 26
6. Anna Maria – 17
SOUTH DEPARTMENT
1. Albertus Magnus (10) – 88
2 Regis (2) – 76
3. Saint Joseph CT (1) – 68
4. Elms – 47
5. Lasell – 40
6. JWU – 31
7th Dean – 14th
Founded in 1995, the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) is an NCAA Division III federation composed of 14 member institutions and over 3,500 student-athletes in the New England region. Each year, GNAC sponsors and administers 20 championships, balancing academic integrity, athletic opportunity and community involvement.
– #TheGNAC –
THANKS IN LARGE TO THE GNAC SPORTS INFORMATION OFFICE
