February 6, 2007 - Day-Neutill Pre-Season All-MAAC Honors

February 6, 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

College Softball
Day-Neutill Pre-Season All-MAAC
Broncs picked Fourth

EDISON—If the league coaches have gazed into the crystal ball correctly, the same four-teams that qualified for the 2006 post-season conference tournament will again face off in the 2007 version in Fairfield, Connecticut come mid-May.  "I was a little surprised that we were picked as high as we were," said head coach Tricia Carroll.  "With all the players we lost to graduation being picked that high shows the amount of respect that our program has around the league."

The 2007 Rider University softball team has been picked to finish fourth in the nine-team Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference preseason poll, voted on by the league’s head coaches it was announced by the conference office.

Rider junior outfielder Tiffany Day-Neutill (Agoura Hills, Calif./Oaks Christian) was selected to the Preseason All-MAAC team.  Day-Neutill, a Biopsychology major and MAAC All-Academic honoree (3.96 g.p.a.), started all 52 games for Rider as a sophomore, batting .335 and led the team in runs scored (32), RBI (20) and doubles (12).

"Having Tiffany picked All-Conference shows the respect in the MAAC that she has gained from the conference coaches and again shows what others think about our program."

Rider has qualified for the four-team conference post-season tournament in three of the last four years and advanced to the MAAC Championship game twice, winning the title in 2003 and finishing runner-up in 2004.

"It's hard making predictions," Carroll added.  "You look to see what the other teams lost and you have an idea of what they have coming in but the conference is so wide open and one or two games, as it historically has will make the difference between winning the league and finishing out of the playoff race."

In 2006, Rider started 2-6 in the conference and won eight in a row to clinch the third-seed in the playoffs.

Canisius College which won the championship in two of the last three seasons was picked to win the MAAC, followed by tournament host Fairfield University and defending conference champion Marist College.  All four teams met in Connecticut last season with Canisius winning the regular season and Marist advancing to its first NCAA tournament.

Iona College was picked fifth followed by Siena College, Niagara University, Manhattan College and Saint Peter’s College.

The Broncs open the 2007 season February 23-25 at the Elon Tournament in North Carolina against Campbell, Connecticut, Georgetown, North Carolina A&T, Ohio, Rutgers and the host Elon Phoenix.

-RU-