One for the books

There’s no other way to put it: the Terriers had a spectacular season. This past year (one of the best on record), Terrier teams won eight conference championships, with six teams and 10 individuals qualifying for NCAA postseason competition. Most memorably, we hoisted our fifth championship trophy in men’s ice hockey.

Another incredible accomplishment is that we won the America East Commissioner’s Cup for the fourth consecutive year and seventh time in the last eight seasons. We are proud and honored to be the top athletic program in the conference.

But perhaps the most exciting news is that we earned our highest Learfield Sports Directors’ Cup finish in 12 years. Out of 348 Division I schools, the Terriers finished 68th—first among schools in Massachusetts and second among New England institutions. The Directors’ Cup is presented annually by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA), Learfield Sports, and USA Today to the best overall collegiate athletics programs in the country in NCAA Divisions I, II, and III and the NAIA.

Some other highlights of the past year:

• Three teams—women’s soccer, women’s basketball, and women’s lacrosse—went undefeated during America East Conference regular-season play.
• Three teams—men’s soccer, men’s ice hockey, and women’s softball—won NCAA tournament games in the same year for just the second time ever.
• We hosted the 2009 Women’s Frozen Four at Agganis Arena, the second NCAA championship in three years held on our campus.
• In the classroom our student-athletes raised the department’s overall GPA to 3.0.
• Ten teams earned perfect Graduation Success Rate (GSR) scores and had two perfect Academic Progress Rate (APR) scores.
• We continue to expand our reach to the Terrier community via Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.