The Terrier women's soccer team, coming off its first America East regular-season and tournament titles in program history, has been tabbed as the pre-season pick to repeat as the conference champion in a poll of the 12 conference coaches.

The Terriers, who open their 2001 season on August 31st at Conference newcomer Stony Brook, garnered eight of the 12 first-place votes and 118 points.

The University of Hartford, which had won three straight America East tournament titles and nine in the 11-year history of the league prior to last season, is this year's pre-season pick to finish second to the Terriers. The Hawks received four first-place votes and 114 points.

Hofstra, which finished third to the Terriers and Hawks in last year's final regular-season standings, was picked to finish third this year with 97 points. Next, in order, came Delaware, 87; Towson, 80; Northeastern, 62; Maine, 58; New Hampshire, 57; Vermont, 44; Stony Brook, 41; Drexel, 23; and Albany, 11. For both Stony Brook and Albany, this will be their first season in the America East.

Picked to finish second in last year's pre-season poll, the Terriers rolled to a perfect 9-0-0 record in league play en route to an overall record of 16-7-0.

They closed the regular-season with consecutive wins over Hartford, Vermont, Delaware, and Towson by combining an excellent offense with a stingy defense. In the four games, they outscored their opponents by a combined score of 12-0.

Then, in the post-season tournament, they defeated Towson, 2-1, in the semifinal match and followed that with a 4-1 win over Hartford in the title win.

The victory earned the Terriers an automatic berth in the NCAA tournament, their first invitation ever to the national tournament in the six-year history of the program.

In the first round, the Terriers blanked Holy Cross, 1-0, but then lost to Dartmouth, 4-1, in the second round.

This year, the Terriers will look to the return of 20 lettermen, 10 of whom were regular starters last year. Co-captains Megan Cross (Pembroke, MA) and Teresa Petruccelli (Flushing, NY) head the list of returning veterans.

One of the major challenges facing the Terriers this year will be finding a replacement for Deidre Enos (Milton, MA). Now playing for the Philadelphia Charge of the WUSA, Enos was a two-time Conference Player of the Year and graduated as the Terriers' all-time scoring leader. In 85 games during her four-year career, she scored 51 goals and had 121 points. Last year, in 23 games, she set the school single-season records for goals with 20 and points with 43.

'Psychologically, we are going into this season with a lot more confidence than we had last year," said head coach Nancy Feldman, who was voted the Conference Coach of the Year last season. "We went undefeated in the league and won the post-season title. We have 10 returning starters and a total of 20 players on this team who what it's like to play n the NCAA tournament."