2025 NEC Women's Lacrosse Preseason Coaches Poll          1. LIU (unanimous)          2. Stonehill          3. Wagner          4. Mercyhurst          5. Le Moyne          6. FDU          7. New Haven          8. (tie) CCSU              Howard        10. Delaware State          First place votes in parentheses

Bridgewater, NJ — The top of the NEC women’s lacrosse leaderboard has been infested by Sharks as of late, and according to the head coaches of the NEC, they’ll be swarming once again at the peak of the standings in 2026.
 
Garnering each of the nine possible first-place votes in the annual Preseason Women’s Lacrosse Coaches’ Poll, two-time defending NEC regular season and NEC Tournament champion LIU has been unanimously pegged as the squad to finish atop of the NEC food chain this season. 
 
The Sharks had company at the pinnacle of the NEC standings at regular season’s end in 2025 as Stonehill and Wagner forced the league’s first-ever three-way tie for the crown at the conclusion of the nine-game slate. This season, the Skyhawks and Seahawks are slated for respective second and third place finishes in the standings in the projected order-of-finish.
 
Polishing off the top four in the poll was Mercyhurst, which went 6-3 for a fourth-place finish in 2025 but was ineligible for the postseason in its inaugural season as an NEC member. Coming in fifth, sixth and seventh were Le Moyne, FDU and New Haven, respectively, while Central Connecticut (t-8th), Howard (t-8th) and Delaware State (10th) rounded out the field.
 
With all the right weapons in place, LIU is primed to post the NEC’s first three-peat since Sacred Heart ran it back consecutively in 2008, 2009 and 2010. 
 
All four of the Sharks’ top scorers return from last year’s banner-raising squad, including reigning NEC Midfielder of the Year Julia Trainor (Billerica, MA/Billerica Memorial). The dual threat player and “jill of all trades” is skilled in nearly every aspect of the game, and last year’s season box score only validated that. The Brooklyn team’s top offensive threat as a junior with 37 goals and 53 points, Trainor also paced the Sharks — and ranked within the NEC’s top 10 — with 25 caused turnovers, 49 ground balls and 84 draw controls. 
 
Adding even more potency to the Sharks’ offense will be attackers Lindsey Lucia (Rocky Point, NY/Rocky Point) and Selia Lyons (Miller Place, NY/Miller Place) along with midfielder Erin Harkins (Floral Park, NY/Floral Park Memorial), a trio of seniors that combined for a whopping 127 points a year ago for head coach Meghan McNamara-Cafiero, who was the orchestrator of the 2025 NEC Coaching Staff of the Year.
 
Stonehill’s offense dropped more than 15 goals a game on fellow NEC competitors last year, and one look down the Skyhawks’ roster for the upcoming 2026 campaign indicates not much should change this season. Highlighted by All-NEC first teamer Natalie Coutu (Brookline, NH/Bishop Guertin) and second teamer Grace Murphy (Kearsarge, N/Holderness School) — a pair of attackers that combined for 110 points behind 83 scores — last year’s NEC Tournament runner-up brings back its 10 top point-getters, a group that accounted for nearly 89-percent of the team’s offensive production.
 
The Skyhawks have even more to play for in 2026 as they are now eligible to earn the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament after completing their transition to Division I.
 
Riding the league’s longest active postseason streak into the 2026 season, a rally that features 11 consecutive appearances since 2014, Wagner looks to hoist the coveted NEC Tournament trophy for the first time since going back-to-back as league champions in 2018 and 2019. Returning as the backbone of a defense that limited NEC foes to 8.73 goals per game last season is Grace DeCarolis (Ridley, PA/Ridley), who manned the net in each of the Seahawks’ eight conference wins as a sophomore.
 
The 2026 Women’s Lacrosse Championship will feature the top-four teams in the conference standings. The tournament will be held at the site of the home seed on April 30 and May 2. 
 
With Stonehill obtaining full DI status, Mercyhurst becomes eligible for the NEC’s postseason tournament, but cannot qualify for the NCAA Tournament until it completes its DI reclassification. 
 
Newbie New Haven makes its league debut on the turf in 2026. The Chargers are not eligible for the conference playoffs this season and the NCAA Tournament until 2029.

About The NEC
Now in its 45th season, the NEC is an NCAA Division I collegiate athletic association consisting of ten institutions of higher learning located throughout six states. Media coverage of the NEC extends to a number of the largest markets in the United States including New York (#1), Chicago (#3), Boston (#9). Hartford/New Haven (#32) and Syracuse (#88). Founded in 1981 as the basketball-only ECAC Metro Conference, the NEC has grown to sponsor 25 championship sports for men and women and now enjoys automatic access to 16 different NCAA Championships. NEC full member institutions include Central Connecticut, Chicago State, FDU, Le Moyne, LIU, Mercyhurst, New Haven, Saint Francis U, Stonehill and Wagner. For more information on the NEC, visit the league's official website (www.necsports.com) and digital network (www.necfrontrow.com), or follow the league on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and TikTok, all @NECsports.