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Somerset, NJ -- The Northeast Conference women’s basketball coaches said Quinnipiac would finish first with Sacred Heart following in second, and they were right.

What the results of the annual NEC preseason coaches’ poll didn’t predict was the historic manner in which Tricia Fabbri’s Bobcats would win the second regular season conference crown in program history.

Quinnipiac, which also won a share of the 2007-08 NEC regular season crown, defeated St. Francis Brooklyn on Monday night, March 4 to move to 27-2 overall and complete a perfect 18-0 run through its league schedule. The Bobcats, whose 27 victories are the most in NEC single-season history, are the fourth team in the conference’s 27-year history of women’s basketball to make it through an 18-game league slate unscathed.

As a result of its 18 conference wins, Quinnipiac will be the No. 1 seed in the 2013 Northeast Conference Tournament while enjoying home-court advantage throughout the three-round postseason event.

No. 2 Sacred Heart (21-9, 13-5), No. 3 Monmouth (15-14, 12-6) and No. 4 Saint Francis U (15-14, 10-8) will join the top-seeded Bobcats in hosting a quarterfinal contest. All NEC Tournament games will be played at the home sites of the higher-seeded teams.

Currently ranked 10th in the CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Top 25, Quinnipiac is in search of the program’s first-ever NEC Tournament title. The Bobcats made it through to the Championship Game once before, falling to Sacred Heart, 69-65, in 2006.

The 27th annual NEC Women’s Basketball Championship will commence on March 10 with quarterfinal round play with the semifinals following on March 13. For the sixth year in a row, the NEC Women’s Basketball Championship Game will reach a live national television audience via ESPNU. The game, which will decide the recipient of the NEC’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, will tip off on Sunday, March 17 at 5:00 pm EST.

Fans can watch quarterfinal round play on NEC Front Row. For the semifinals, the NEC and Pack Network are teaming up to provide premium broadcasts containing fan-friendly features such as instant replay and HD quality (free-of-charge).

While Quinnipiac made NEC history on the regular season’s final day, so did the Bobcats’ NEC quarterfinal round opponent. Eligible for the postseason for the first time as a Division I member, No. 8 Bryant (12-17, 8-10) needed overtime to defeat Robert Morris and clinch the final spot in the eight-team NEC Tournament bracket. Mary Burke’s Bulldogs have played a full Division I schedule for five straight years and have never finished with fewer than 10 wins.

2012-13 Meetings: QU 85, BRY 62 (Jan. 14); QU 74, BRY 61 (Feb. 25)

No. 2 Sacred Heart, the defending NEC Tournament champion, has never finished lower than third place in the conference standings since joining the league in 1999. Ed Swanson’s Pioneers will host a team that beat them earlier in the year -- No. 7 St. Francis Brooklyn (11-18, 8-10). John Thurston’s Terriers are arguably the “Feel Good” Story of the Year in the Northeast Conference. After winning only four NEC games over the past two season combined, St. Francis doubled that total this season, which was Thurston’s first at the helm. Slotted 11th in the NEC preseason coaches’ poll, the Terriers vehemently defied the ranking and clinched its first postseason berth in five years.

2012-13 Meetings: SFC 56, SHU 47 (Jan. 5); SHU 57, SFC 53 (Mar. 2)

No. 3 Monmouth shook off a 3-8 season start to finish third in the NEC standings, earning the privilege to host a quarterfinal round game for the third year in a row. Having reached the title tilt each of the past two years, the Hawks are looking for their first NEC Tournament crown since 1987. Second-year head coach Jenny Palmateer will lead her team up against No. 6 Mount St. Mary’s (14-15, 10-8), a team that is enjoying its highest tournament seeding in six seasons under Bryan Whitten. The Mount, which has three NEC Tournament titles to its credit, has made it through to the Championship Game on seven occasions, but none since 2001. The Mountaineers will look to snap their 10-game NEC Tournament losing streak in what will be a rematch of Monday night’s regular season finale.

2012-13 Meetings: MSM 70, MON 51 (Jan. 5); MON 71, MSM 63 (Mar. 4)

No. 4 Saint Francis U and No. 5 Central Connecticut (16-13, 10-8) met on the final day of the regular season in New Britain, and they will meet again in the NEC Tournament quarterfinal round. This time, the setting will switch to Loretto, PA where the Red Flash are 9-3 this season. Saint Francis, which is the winningest program in NEC Tournament history (39-7), won back-to-back conference crowns in 2010 and 2011 when current head coach Joe Haigh was an assistant under Susan Robinson Fruchtl. Meanwhile, Central Connecticut returns to the postseason following a one-year hiatus. Beryl Piper’s Blue Devils made it through to the semifinal round in 2009, 2010 and 2011.

2012-13 Meetings: SFU 67, CCSU 62 (Jan. 7); CCSU 76, SFU 71 (Mar. 4)