Jan. 31, 2013

AMHERST, Mass. - As the start of the 2013 season is just over one week away, the UMass women's lacrosse team will enter the year with a No. 13 national ranking according to the InsideLacrosse.com/deBeer Media Poll. The Minutewomen are seeking their fifth straight Atlantic 10 title and fourth NCAA Tournament appearance in the last five years.

Syracuse earned the No. 1 spot, while defending national champions Northwestern took the No. 2 preseason ranking. UMass will open the 2013 campaign next Friday, Feb. 8 against the Wildcats in a game played at Southern California in Los Angeles.

The only other team the Minutewomen will face this season in the preseason poll is Albany which is the first team listed under Also Receiving Votes.

UMass finished 2012 with a 19-2 overall record and a 7-0 record in the Atlantic 10. Last season marked the second consecutive year that the Minutewomen posted a perfect mark in league play.

One of the top offensive teams last season finishing first in the nation in points per game, UMass was ranked No. 10 in the final poll of 2012. The Minutewomen won their fourth straight Atlantic 10 Championship Title before winning an NCAA Play-In game against Canisius. UMass fell on the road in a tightly fought battle at Maryland in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

Earlier, Inside Lacrosse also announced its preseason All-America squad with Katie Ferris being named to the second team. The native of Carthage, N.Y., finished 2012 as the nation's fourth leading scorer and set UMass and Atlantic 10 single-season scoring records with 98 points.

The 19 wins in 2012 were the second most in program history. UMass will open the 2013 season with a 20-game win streak alive against conference opponents.

Rank		Team	Points	1st Place Votes
1		Syracuse University	189	5
2		Northwestern University	188	4
3		University of Florida	187	1
4		University of Maryland	175
5		University of North Carolina	155
6		Duke University	146
7		Loyola University	145
8		University of Notre Dame	129
9		Penn State University	118
10		University of Pennsylvania	99
11		University of Virginia	94
12		Dartmouth College	86
13		University of Massachusetts-Amherst	78
14		Georgetown University	75
15		Harvard University	46
16		Towson University	42
17		Johns Hopkins University	37
18		Boston College	32
19		Stony Brook University	23
20		The Ohio State University	21
ALSO RECEIVING VOTES University of Albany , Cornell University , Princeton University , United State Naval Academy , University of Oregon