Capping off an exceptional year for Adelphi University Athletics, the program has just been awarded all three of the 2024 NE10 Conference Presidents’ Cups. Highlights this year: a hard-fought National Championship for men’s lacrosse and a run to the national title game for women’s lacrosse. The Presidents’ Cups are the NE10’s highest honors given to the top-performing programs in the conference.
Adding an exclamation point at the end of an unprecedented year for its 21 athletic teams, the Adelphi University Department of Athletics surpassed the 11 other universities in the Northeast-10 (NE10) Conference to take home all three of the conference’s Presidents’ Cup awards for 2023–2024.
The Presidents’ Cups were presented to student-athletes and members of Adelphi’s athletics department on June 4, 2024, at a special Northeast-10 Conference ceremony in Needham, Massachusetts. Morgan Salmon, a member of the women’s soccer team, joined the festivities to accept her NE10 Woman of the Year honor.
This is the first year the NE10 awarded three Presidents’ Cups—one for an overall champion and one each for men’s and women’s champions. The annual overall award is given to the member school that compiles the most cumulative points for regular-season finishes in team sports.
A substantial 30.5 points separated the Panthers from the rest of the pack for the overall award, after they missed out on last year’s Cup by just one point. Adelphi’s winning margin is the second-largest in the Cup’s nearly 40-year history.
The Panthers have now won five overall NE10 Presidents’ Cups. Their last victory came in 2016–2017; since then, Adelphi has finished in second place five times and third place once.
“This culminates a very successful year for Adelphi University Athletics. These awards are special because each student-athlete, coach and staff member contributes to this success. These are truly department-wide awards,” said Adelphi Director of Athletics and Campus Recreation Danny McCabe. “We are grateful to the leadership of Adelphi University—the board of trustees, President Christine Riordan, and the executive leadership—for all of the support and resources they provide to allow our student-athletes to thrive in competition and on campus.”
Adelphi battled runner-up Bentley University for the newly adopted Men’s Sports Cup and Women’s Sports Cup. The Panthers eventually ran away in both races, winning each by a considerable margin of more than 10 points.
The Panthers’ victories rested on first-place regular-season finishes by six teams: men’s golf, tennis and lacrosse, and women’s tennis, softball and volleyball. All but three Adelphi teams finished no lower than third in their pursuit of an NE10 championship.