Bentley University athletics has built a legacy of excellence over our 60-plus years. This year, the Falcons continued that tradition, building on that success and taking it to the next level with a number of firsts.
This season, our women's sports shined. I'm proud to share that Bentley captured the Northeast 10 Pioneers Cup - emblematic of the best overall women's program in the conference - and finished a strong second in the Northeast 10 President's Cup standings. In the Learfield Cup standings, which measures the top athletic programs nationally based on NCAA championship competition, we placed 56th, our highest in the last 15 years.
We had representation in NCAA championship play in a record nine sports, including our Atlantic Hockey championship team for the first time ever. Women's volleyball repeated as East Region champions and became the first team in NE10 history to reach the national semifinals in the sport. Women's basketball reached the Elite Eight for the 15th time, just an incredible achievement.
Many more of our accomplishments during the last year are detailed elsewhere in this report, but I'd like to touch on just a couple. Baseball broke the school record for wins for the second straight year, women's cross country earned its first-ever NE10 championship, women's golf became our newest varsity sport, and hockey, baseball and volleyball all earned national rankings for the first time in their history.
I'm always talking about "Defending the Nest" and your Falcons once again did just that, winning 72 percent of the time at home with a record of 114-43-6. Men's soccer, women's soccer and men's swimming all were unbeaten at home and football, men's lacrosse, women's basketball, women's basketball, women's tennis, and volleyball all had just one home loss.
Our year featured a number of new initiatives, most centered around student-athletic development, and the spring and summer months have seen a major renovation to the Dana Athletic Center, with the fieldhouse being split into two separate gyms.
We can't forget our academic successes. During both semesters, 86 percent of our student-athletes were named to the NE10 Academic Honor Roll. Men's ice hockey turned in a 3.6 grade point average and placed 90 percent of its student-athletes on the Atlantic Hockey All-Academic Team. All of Bentley's varsity teams had overall grade point averages of 3.0 or better, and our overall GPA for 2024-25 was an exceptional 3.39.
I'm thrilled to report that fundraising for Bentley athletics was at an all-time high, with nearly $900,000 raised. I can't tell you how important these funds are in helping us to achieve our goals.
Whether you are a student-athlete, a coach or staff member, an alumnus or a member of the community, we could not do it without you. Thank you for your continuing support!
Go Falcons!
Vaughn
