The UMass women's rowing team has now won the Atlantic 10 Championship 12 straight years, after finishing one point ahead of Rhode Island on Saturday on the Cooper River near Camden, N.J. The Minutewomen finished with 45 points, the Rams with 44. Duquesne was third with 26. No school in any sport has won more A-10 titles consecutively than UMass' rowing has. It is UMass' fourth Atlantic 10 championship this school year. Football won in the fall, men's swimming & diving and men's basketball in the winter.

UMass won the championship as the quad took gold in the final event of the day. UMass' Hannah Brewster, Ellen Maskrey, Haley Fitzgerald, and Tara Guinan routed the field, with a winning time of 7:18.5, almost 24 seconds ahead of second place URI. The victory gave UMass the title. It was the second year in a row that the Minutewomen won the quad. UMass won the A-10 title with depth, as they took silver in five other events. The varsity eight, the second varsity eight, the varsity four, the novice eight, and the lightweight four all were second. The novice four was third and the lightweight eight took fourth. The one gold medal is UMass' lowest total in 12 years.

"We're happy to win," said Head Coach Jim Dietz. "We knew it was going to be tough and needed every boat to score to come through with as many points as possible. We went faster than we have all year and look to do even better in two weeks in the ECAC Championships."

In the varsity eight, URI's boat won with a 6:42.5, just barely ahead of UMass' 6:46.0. UMass' boat included Gabrielle Papineau, Ellen Maskrey, Hannah Brewster, Sarah Marsan, Airlina Burrill, Amanda Mawn, Elizabeth Hayashida, Tara Guinan, and coxswain Dana Pulda.

The second varsity eight also finished second to URI, being edged by about three-and-a-half seconds. The Rams crossed the finish line in 6:58.0, compared to the Minutewomen's 7:01.4. UMass' boat included Andrea Morand, Haley Fitzgerald, Karen Plevock, Erin Kelly, Rachael Nealer, Karalyn Walk, Kristen Boyce, Julie Markus, and coxswain Molly Morgan.

UMass' varsity four finished second to URI's crew by a little more than three seconds. URI won with a 7:53.3, compared to UMass' 7:56.6. The UMass boat included Papineau, Marsan, Burrill, Anna Welch, and coxswain Jeanine LeDoux.

URI slipped by UMass again in the novice eight, 7:16.9 to 7:30.6. The Minutewomen boat included Sarah Albert, Jenna Oelschlegel, Anna Kenseth, Jennifer Rivero, Samantha Smith, Meghan Caffrey, Chelsea Finnegan, Allison Donzanti, and coxswain Melissa D'Amico.

The lightweight four was second to a record setting boat from Duquesne. The Dukes set an A-10 mark at 7:56.0 and the Minutewomen were just 3.4 seconds behind them, with a 7:59.4. Abby Lively, Sarah Potts, Anna Malinkevich, Maria Arcari, and coxswain Ashley Brooks were in the boat for UMass.

UMass' novice four (8:23.2) finished third to Duquesne (8:13.6) and Saint Joseph's (8:15.3). The UMass boat included Claire Champine, Kathryn Kern, Stacey Susienka, Lindsay Dawson, and coxswain Mariam Iken. UMass lightweight eight (7:51.0) was fourth, finishing behind Dayton (7:27.3), Duquesne (7:41.5), and Temple (7:46.2). The UMass boat included Amy Rayla, Jessica Romain, Laura Silverman, Allison Donzanti, Julie Pulda, Ashley Han, Maura Ryan, Brittany Cartin, and coxswain Erin Flaherty.

The final team standings were: Massachusetts 45, Rhode Island 44, Duquesne 26, Saint Joseph's 24, Dayton 20, George Washington 16, Temple 13, Fordham 11, La Salle 6.

The Minutewomen will be off next weekend, before trying to defend the ECAC title on May 5 at Worcester.