Nov. 8, 2001

Boston, MA -- - The Stony Brook University women's basketball team has been selected seventh in the America East preseason poll released Thursday. The vote was conducted by the nine conference coaches.

The Seawolves were chosen first out of the three, first-year America East teams that include Binghamton and Albany. Stony Brook collected 26 total votes and finished 15 points behind fifth place Boston University and Northeastern.

In its second year as a Division I program, Stony Brook finished with a 16-12 record as an independent last season, posting an impressive 13-1 campaign at home.

Vermont was the unanimous choice as the top team, receiving eight of the nine first place votes and 80 votes overall. Hartford finished second with one first place vote and 69 overall.

The team's leading scorer - Sherry Jordan - was chosen as one of the five players to make the preseason All-America East team. Jordan averaged 18.5 points and 7.9 rebounds per game as a freshman.

She joins Hartford's Janeka Lopp, Maine's Heather Ernest, Vermont's Morgan Hall and Boston University's Katie Terhune on the team.

The Seawolves open the season next Saturday afternoon at 2:00 p.m. against Rider at the SBU Sports Complex. They open America East conference play versus Maine at 1:00 p.m. on January 6 - also at home.

2001 AMERICA EAST PRESEASON WOMEN'S BASKETBALL POLL:

1. Vermont (8) 80

2. Hartford (1) 69

3. Maine 64

4. UNH 49

5. Boston U. 41

Northeastern 41

7. Stony Brook 26

8. Binghamton 23

9. Albany 12

2001 AMERICA EAST PRESEASON ALL-CONFERENCE TEAM : Janeka Lopp (Sr., Hartford), Heather Ernest (So., Maine), Morgan Hall (Jr., Vermont), Katie Terhune (So., Boston University), Sherry Jordan (So., Stony Brook)