Aug. 15, 2002

OXFORD, Ohio - In a close vote on Wednesday afternoon Kent State was picked to be the Mid-American Conference field hockey regular-season champion in the league's preseason poll conducted by its head coaches. The Golden Flashes received 30 points out of a possible 36 points, which included three first-place votes, while the Miami University field hockey team rounded out the poll in sixth place with seven points.

Behind Kent State in the poll was Louisville with 29 points, and Ohio with 26 points. Ball State sits in the fourth slot with 19 points followed by Central Michigan in fifth with 15 points. Louisville, Ohio and Central Michigan all received one first-place vote in the poll.

Voting for the MAC tournament champion was even tighter as there was no clear-cut favorite this season. Kent State headlines the list with two votes while Louisville, Ohio, Ball State and Central Michigan all received one vote for the league crown.

"The vote is pretty much the way that I expected it to be from top to bottom," Miami coach Lil Fesperman says. "This just adds to our challenge of clawing out of the bottom of the league. It's up to us to earn respect around the MAC and I think we're going to surprise some people this year."

The RedHawks were chosen to finish sixth in the MAC for the second straight year after finishing the 2001 season with an 0-10 conference mark. Returning in 2002 for the Red and White are 13 letterwinners and seven starters.