STANDISH, Maine – The third NCAA DIII Women's Basketball Regional Rankings have been released and Saint Joseph's College is ranked fourth in the Northeast Region for the third-straight week.
Saint Joseph's, 25-1 overall, completed the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) regular-season docket with a perfect 16-0 record en route to earning the top seed in the GNAC Tournament for the third-consecutive season.
Led by 26th-year Head Coach Mike McDevitt '83, the Monks are riding a program-record 24-game winning streak, the longest string in SJC Athletics and GNAC Women's Basketball history. The Monks' 83-54 tournament quarterfinal win over Mount Ida College on Tuesday night was the team's 24th-consecutive win and broke the Saint Joseph's record for longest winning streak, which was originally set when the men's basketball program rattled off 23 straight triumphs during the 1998-99 campaign.
The Monks' win streak is the third-longest active streak in NCAA DIII Women's Basketball. #1 Amherst College has won 58-consecutive games while Wartburg College owns a 25-game winning streak. Saint Joseph's has not suffered a setback since falling to Babson College in the Keene State Tip-Off Tournament on November 17th.
Saint Joseph's, winners of the last two GNAC Championships, has also won 35-consecutive home games – the second-longest string of home victories behind Rose-Hulman (36).
Three nationally-ranked teams continue to sit ahead of the Monks in the second regional ranking release, as #1 Amherst College (25-0) – the reigning national champion, #3 Bowdoin College (24-1) and #10 Tufts University (22-3) fill the top slots in the Northeast.
Roger Williams University (21-4), UMass.-Dartmouth (22-3), Smith College (20-5), Wesleyan College (17-7), WPI (20-5), Middlebury College (17-8), University of New England (20-5), and Connecticut College (15-9) round out the top 12 teams in the region.
Saint Joseph's currently ranks third nationally in winning percentage (.962), fourth in scoring margin (26.2), and eighth in three-point field goals made (220) and assists (473).
The Monks are set to host Albertus Magnus College, the #5 seed in the GNAC Tournament, in a conference semifinal tonight at 7:00 PM.
