This continues our series of daily articles previewing each men's and women's college conference. All the conference previews can be found here.

Today’s college preview features the women of the Atlantic 10 and Ivy League, in which champions Dayton and Harvard are well-positioned to defend their titles.
 
Atlantic 10

Dayton was nearly flawless on its way to the A10 championship in 2009, compiling a 10-0-1 conference record and sending five players to all-conference teams. All-American performer Mandi Bäck and Halley Beam are gone, but sophomore midfielder Colleen Williams and junior defenders Kathleen Beljan and Kelsey Miller give the Flyers the tools to defend their title.

After falling just short of an A10 title in 2009, Charlotte is fully loaded to make another run. Forwards Oni Bernard and Whitney Weinraub, midfielder Sam Huecker and defender Megan Minnix give the Niners great depth and experience all over the field.

St. Bonaventure earned third place in the regular season, but was blown out by St. Louis(w) 3-0 in the first round of the A10 championships. Senior forward Courtney Bosse will need help from a talented freshman class, including midfielder Jordan Calabria, to take the Wolves further in 2010.

Fordham is another talented team looking to get over the hump in 2010. A successful 2009 saw the Rams get to the A10 semifinals, but coach Ness Selmani is hoping forward Annie Worden and midfielder Katie McDermott can do even more and lead their team to the promised land.

After sustaining heavy losses to graduation over the summer, St. Louis(w) will look to all-conference performers Andrea Barklage and Allison Hu, both midfielders, to keep the Billikens near the top of the conference in 2010.

Massachusetts managed to qualify for the A10 championships without any sparkling individual talent in 2009, and coach Ed Matz hopes to get his overachieving squad to perform a similar feat in 2010.

A talented but youthful George Washington team will need freshmen Alexandra Neal and Jane Wallis to reach their potential quickly in 2010. Lacking in veteran leadership, the young Colonials will have to learn on the fly.

La Salle, Richmond and St. Joseph’s(w) all finished with identical 4-6-1 conference records in 2009, and each team now stakes its hopes on a class of incoming freshmen. LaSalle(w)’s Kerri Aiken, St. Joesph’s Mo Hawkins and Richmond’s Becca Wann will need an immediate impact to help their teams emerge from obscurity.

Both 4-7 teams in 2009, Duquesne and Rhode Island will depend on sophomore Morgan Herbert and senior Kaylen Shimoda, respectively, to move forward in 2010.

Bottom-feeders Temple and Xavier have plenty of work ahead as they try to improve on their combined 5-16-1 conference record in 2009. Temple coach David Jones and new Xavier chief Woody Sherwood will need a big turnaround to attain a measure of respectability in 2010.

Ivy League

Harvard won its second straight Ivy championship in 2009, and with all-conference performers Katherine Sheeleigh, Melanie Baskin and Lindsey Kowal back in the fold, the Crimson is in good shape to make another run in 2010.

Ivy League 2009 POY Becky Brown headlines a Yale team that also features 2009 co-Rookie of the Year Kristen Forster and dynamic attacker Miyuko Hino. If the Bulldogs fulfill the promise of their talented roster, the league crown will be theirs for the taking.

With the top overall record (10-4-2) in the Ivy League but a sub-par performance in the tournament, Penn missed an opportunity to achieve something special in 2009. Senior leaders Jessica Fucello and Michelle Drugan are now gone, so midfielder Sarah Friedman and defender Kaitlin Campbell will need to pick up the slack in 2010.

With all-conference senior performers Myra Sack and Kelsey Quick in 2009, Dartmouth earned fourth place in the Ivy League. But without them in 2010, someone else will need to step up. This year, the onus will be on coach Angie Hind to get the best out of a painfully young roster.  

Princeton and Columbia were the picture of mediocrity in 2009, combining for a 14-14-6 record overall. But Princeton goalkeeper Alyssa Pont and defender Alison Nabatoff, last season’s ROY, and Columbia forward Ashlin Yahr give both programs reason for optimism in 2010.

Brown will lean on junior defender Allison Kagawa to minimize the loss of departed seniors Bridget Ballard and Melissa Kim in 2010.

Bright spots were few and far between for Cornell in 2009, as the Big Red stumbled to an abysmal 1-13-1 overall record. Coach Danielle LaRoche has a solid leader in junior defender Sidra Bonner, but she’ll be working overtime to squeeze something positive out of this roster in the coming year.