Northeast

Mary Burke, the four-time Rhode Island Women's Basketball Coach of the Year ('07, '08, '13, '14), will enter her 25th season as head coach of the Bryant women's basketball team in 2015-16.

Central Connecticut State University alumna Beryl Piper returns for her ninth season as the head coach of Blue Devil women's basketball. The 1987 graduate is the winningest women's basketball coach of CCSU's Division I era with 112 career victories. She has also led CCSU to four Northeast Conference Tournament Semifinals (2009, 2010, 2011, 2015) and two WNIT post-season appearances (2009, 2015) in her tenure. Piper enters 2015-16 with a career record of 112-128 over eight seasons.

Peter Cinella is entering his ninth season at the helm of the FDU women's basketball program. Entering the 2015-16 season Cinella held a 84-154 (.353) record at FDU and a 375-284 (.569).

Stephanie Oliver begins her first season as head women's basketball coach at LIU Brooklyn in 2015-16. The top assistant at Seton Hall for the last two seasons, Oliver was an integral part of leading the Pirates to a school-record 28 victories and a trip to the NCAA Tournament in 2014-15.

In his first eight seasons as head coach, Bryan Whitten has guided the Mount St. Mary's women's basketball program back to its place among the best in the Northeast Conference. Ready to embark on his ninth season at the Mount in 2015-16, Whitten's Mountaineers have made four-consecutive NEC Postseason appearances.

Robert Morris University women's basketball head coach Sal Buscaglia is entering his final season on the bench with the Colonials, 13 years after taking over and turning around the women's basketball program. Since he has taken over, the women's basketball program has played in six national tournaments, won three Northeast Conference championships and earned playoff berths in 10 of his 12 seasons.

Jessica Mannetti took over the Sacred Heart women's basketball program at the start of the 2013-14 season. In her first season with the Pioneers, she led the team to a 12-18 record, including overtime battles with Big East members Villanova and St. John's, and a sixth place finish in the Northeast Conference with a 9-9 league record.

Joe Haigh enters his fourth season as the head coach of the Saint Francis U women's basketball team in 2015-16. It is his eighth season on the staff in Loretto.

Lisa Cermignano (pronounced sir-min-YA-no), a former assistant coach at Illinois and Vanderbilt, a Hall of Fame player at George Washington and the 1992-93 New Jersey Gatorade State Player of the Year, was named head women's basketball coach at Wagner College in April, 2012.