Salisbury to open 2009 season as No. 6 team in Kookaburra/NFHCA Division III Preseason Poll

CHANDLER, Ariz. - The Salisbury University field hockey team will open the 2009 season as the No. 6 team in the country as the Kookaburra/NFHCA (National Field Hockey Coaches Association) Division III Preseason Poll was released this week.

Salisbury received 492 points in the preseason poll. Two-time defending NCAA champion Bowdoin College received 24 of 36 first-place votes and 686 points and is the top-ranked team to open the 2009 campaign. Tufts University opens the season No. 2, having received seven first-place votes and 636 points, Ursinus College (three first-place votes, 629 points) is third, Messiah College (two first-place votes, 579 points) is fourth and The College of New Jersey (513 points) rounds out the top five. 

Salisbury will open the season at unranked Hood College on Sept. 1, and its first game at Sea Gull Stadium will be Sept. 5 against St. Mary's. This season, the Sea Gulls are scheduled to play six teams that are ranked in the preseason top 15. Salisbury's first game against a ranked opponent will be Sept. 9 at No. 14 Christopher Newport. The first home contest against a ranked opponent will be Sept. 13, during the second day of the SU Invitational when the Sea Gulls will take on No. 3 Ursinus.

The Sea Gulls ended the 2008 season with a 15-4 record, falling in the second round of the NCAA tournament, 4-3 in overtime, to SUNY Cortland.

Last season, Salisbury began the season ranked No. 2 in the nation.

Kookaburra/NFHCA Division III Preseason Poll

1. Bowdoin

2. Tufts

3. Ursinus

4. Messiah

5. The College of New Jersey

6. SALISBURY

7. Middlebury

8. Lebanon Valley

9. SUNY Cortland

10. Rowan

11. Johns Hopkins

12. Trinity (Conn.)

13. Skidmore

14. Christopher Newport

15. Stevens Institute of Technology

16. Lynchburg

17. Elizabethtown

18. Gettysburg

19. Springfield

20. William Paterson