Woman’s Basketball Earns Ninth Straight ECAC Appearance

BEVERLY, Mass. – The Endicott women's basketball team will return to the court this season as one of eight teams in the 2013 Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Division 3 New England tournament.

The Gulls earned their ninth consecutive ECAC bid and the #7 seed after posting a record of 16-11 and reaching the Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) semifinals.

Their first round opponent will be the Rams of Suffolk University, a foe that Endicott has already met this year and dispatched with a 58-54 road victory on December 8^th. The Gulls will return to Boston for their first-round meeting on Wednesday night at 7:00 pm.

Endicott is led in scoring by Samantha Crough (Cohasset, Mass.) and Jen White (Lisbon, N.H.), each of whom are averaging just under 12 points per game and both of whom were named CCC All-Conference.

White is tops on the team with 6.7 rebounds per game, while senior guard Jen McBrien (Medfield, Mass.) is dishing out 4.2 assists and swiping nearly 2 passes per game. Crough has over a block and a half per contest and she and McBrien are averaging nearly six rebounds a game as well.

Suffolk posted a 21-7 record and 10-2 mark in the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC), earning themselves the #2 seed in the GNAC postseason tournament. The Rams defeated Emerson and St. Joseph's (Me.) in the playoffs before falling in the GNAC championship game to Emmanuel, the third consecutive year that the Saints have ended Suffolk's conference tournament run, two of them in the tournament finals.

Junior Jennifer Ruys (Wallingford, Conn.) leads the Rams in scoring at 15.9 points per game, while also averaging 7 rebounds and 1.5 blocks. Ilianai Quadri (Sudbury, Mass.) is averaging 11.3 points per game and shooting 44.2% from the three-point line, while Jacqueline Vienneau (Salem, N.H.) has poured in 12.3 points and collected 5.6 rebounds to go with a team-high 4.6 assists per game.

History favors the Gulls, who are 14-8 all-time in 22 career meetings between the two programs. Endicott has won eight of the last nine matchups, dating back to 2005, including a 61-59 home win in 2008 at the same stage of the ECAC tournament, the only time the teams have met in postseason play.

 In eight appearances, Endicott has reached the ECAC semifinals on four occasions, including the last two years, but has never appeared in the tournament's championship game. Last season the Gulls defeated Clark University 71-66 in the opening round before bowing out of the tournament against Smith College.

Castleton State earned the top seed in this year's tournament, followed by Suffolk, Wellesley and CCC foe Roger Williams. Salve Regina is also into the field as the #6 seed, as three teams representing the CCC earned bids this year.