VESTAL, N.Y. – The America East has released its preseason women's basketball poll and the Bearcats have been chosen to finish third out of nine teams this season. The third-place selection ties the program's highest preseason ranking.

Finishing ahead of Binghamton were New Hampshire and Albany respectively. The Wildcats received all eight first-place votes while the Great Danes had the final vote. The voting was done by the nine conference head coaches, none of whom were allowed to choose their own team.

Rounding out places four through nine were Hartford, UMBC, Maine, Vermont, Stony Brook and UMass Lowell respectively.

Binghamton has made steady progress in the three seasons since Linda Cimino has been the head coach. After placing last in 2015, the Bearcats finished in a three-way tie for third place the following season and were fifth last year. In 2016, Binghamton advanced to the America East semifinals for the first time since 2012.

The Bearcats have been picked to finish third three previous times during their 16 previous seasons in the America East Conference. Those instances came in 2007, 2009 and 2010 preseason polls.

Binghamton opens up its 2017 campaign at Army on Nov. 10