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Bridgewater, NJ -- The road to an NEC three-peat starts with plenty of star power at FDU.

The two-time defending champion and preseason favorite Knights landed two players on the five-member Preseason All-NEC team, which features three returning All-NEC honorees as selected by the league’s head coaches.

The annual squad was announced to launch NEC Women’s Basketball Media Week on Monday along with the unveiling of the 2026-27 NEC preseason poll.

The frontcourt pairing of 6-0 sophomore Leah Crosby (Plainfield, NJ/St. Thomas Aquinas) and senior Rebecca Osei-Owusu (Brooklyn, NY/Monsignor Scanlon) represented the Knights on the preseason team.

The remaining three honorees all hailed from different schools.

LIU junior guard Janessa Williams (Lake Worth, FL/The King’s Academy) returns after helping lead the Sharks to their first NEC title game appearance since 2010. Mercyhurst junior guard Cici Hernandez (Bethlehem, PA/Bethlehem Catholic) is coming off a breakout campaign that earned her NEC Most Improved Player honors, while Stonehill veteran guard Brooke Paquette (Hudson, NH/Bishop Guertin) looks to make it three straight All-Conference seasons after earning her second consecutive preseason selection.

Helping bring back-to-back conference championships to the burgundy and blue in Hackensack, Osei-Owusu has improved her game by leaps and bounds in her three years as a Knight. The senior forward shot a league-best 57.7 percent from the field last season and owned one of the top rebounding averages in the league, grabbing 6.4 per contest. Osei-Owusu showed out on multiple occasions, including a trio of double-double outings. The Brooklyn, NY native made improvements across multiple stat categories a season ago, including upping her scoring from 1.9 to 6.8 ppg. She will aim to take on an even bigger role for FDU in her senior season.

Making her mark the minute she stepped on campus, Crosby did it all underneath for the Knights as a freshman last season. The Plainfield, NJ native racked up the accolades in 2025-26 as she was tabbed NEC Rookie of the Week three times, named to the NEC All-Tournament Team and headlined the All-Rookie squad. The crowning achievement of Crosby’s freshman campaign was the 10-point, 14-rebound double-double she posted in the NEC final to help FDU cut down the nets for the second season in a row. Crosby recorded four double-doubles a year ago, which tied for the most among all NEC rookies. Crosby ranked fourth on the Knights in scoring (7.6 ppg) and tied for second in rebounding (5.8) to help the Knights rack up 30 victories.

Even though her 2025-26 season was cut short due to injury, Williams was instrumental in the Sharks reaching the 20-win mark for the first time in 14 years. The efficient-shooting 5-10 guard, who can score from all over the floor, earned first team All-NEC honors and finished last season among league leaders in both field goal percentage (seventh, 45.6 percent) and three-point accuracy (second, 38.6 percent). Playing 25 games a year ago, Williams posted three double-doubles along with a trio of 20-point outings and three games with at least 10 boards. The Lake Worth, FL product posted the second-best scoring average on the team (13.5 ppg), which ranked seventh in the conference, for a high-flying Sharks offense that averaged the most points per game (70.8) in the NEC. LIU’s lone returning player last season, Williams now leads a roster that welcomes back six others from the Sharks’ deep postseason run.

A transformed Hernandez emerged as one of the NEC’s breakout stars in 2025-26 for a Mercyhurst squad that advanced to the NEC semifinals in its initial postseason appearance. The sharpshooter upgraded her scoring average by 7.5 points, going from 6.2 to 13.7 ppg, which put her at fifth in the NEC rankings last season. A one-time NEC Player of the Week selection, Hernandez also ranked second on the circuit in both free throw percentage (87.3 percent) and three-pointers per game (2.7 per game). In addition to NEC Most Improved Player honors, the junior guard garnered All-Conference first team status last winter. Hernandez was also one of two players in the league who drained at least eight shots from beyond the arc in a single game, which tied for 20th nationally. The Bethlehem, PA native will aim to lead the Lakers to another deep conference tournament run.

A mainstay in the NEC, Paquette returns for her senior season as one of the most versatile guards the league has seen in recent memory. A tireless presence on the court, the two-time All-NEC honoree earned first team honors last season while averaging a whopping 34.3 minutes per game, tops among the league’s returning players. Paquette finished second in the NEC in scoring (14.9 ppg), while going a near-perfect 101-for-112 (90.2 percent) from the charity stripe, which led all conference competitors. The Hudson, NH native started every game for the Skyhawks on her way to attaining NEC Player of the Week status twice. The 2024-25 NEC Most Improved Player will now set her sights on guiding Stonehill to a second championship game appearance in three seasons.

About The NEC
Now in its 46th season, the NEC is an NCAA Division I collegiate athletic association consisting of nine 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 sports for men and women and now enjoys automatic access to 17 different NCAA Championships. NEC full member institutions include Central Connecticut, Chicago State, FDU, Le Moyne, LIU, Mercyhurst, New Haven, 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.