Feb. 17, 2010

The Maine Black Bears are the preseason favorite for the America East championship, in voting by the league’s head coaches and released by the conference office.

Maine received three first-place votes and 23 points to squeak past Stony Brook, which had two first-place votes and 21 points. The Seawolves were the 2008 America East champion.

Binghamton, last season’s regular-season and tournament champion, garnered the final first-place vote and had 19 points to place third, followed by Albany, Hartford and UMBC.

The league will compete in two separate divisions, the red and the white, for the first time. The top four teams, regardless of division, will advance to the America East Championship. The highest seed will host the double-elimination tournament May 26-28, with the winner earning the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA Championship. Albany, Hartford and Maine will be in the red division, with Binghamton, UMBC and Stony Brook in the white division.

2010 Predicted Order of Finish

(2009 America East/overall records, points, first-place votes)

1 Maine (13-11, 32-23) 23 (3)

2 Stony Brook (14-10, 29-23) 21 (2)

3 Binghamton (13-7, 30-22) 19 (1)

4 Albany (15-9, 26-31) 13

5 Hartford (7-15, 15-32) 9

6 UMBC (4-18, 9-36) 5