New Paltz Athletics. Tournament by means of the automaticqualifying

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1 New Paltz Athletics ALUMNI NEWSLETTER Women s Soccer Wins 2011 SUNYAC Title; Advances in NCAA Tournament Winter For the New Paltz women s soccer team, the 2011 season was the most successful in the program s history. The Hawks qualified for the NCAA Division III Women s Soccer Championship Tournament for the first time after earning their first-ever SUNYAC women s soccer championship title. In recognition of its successful season, New Paltz was accorded a No. 19 ranking in the final D3soccer.com Women s Top- 25 Poll and No. 20 ranking in the final National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) NCAA Division III Women s National Top-25 Poll. The Hawks saw their season come to an end in Grantham, Pa., after a hardfought 1-0 loss to top-ranked Messiah College in the third round of the 2011 NCAA Division III Women s Soccer Championship Tournament, in which Stephanie Vega recorded a season-high 14 saves. Entering the NCAA Tournament as underdogs, the Hawks surprised many by advancing on penalty kicks against Lynchburg College in their opening-round contest after a 0-0 tie. New Paltz stayed hot by taking down Rowan University, 2-1, in overtime the next day to extend its season for another week before falling to Messiah. Alexa Balestrieri s first goal of the season could not have come at a better time, as she scored the game-winner against Rowan. New Paltz gained entry into the NCAA The State University of New York at New Paltz women s soccer team captured its first-ever SUNYAC title in 2011 while advancing to the third round of the NCAA Tournament. Tournament by means of the automaticqualifying bid from the SUNYAC. The Hawks shut out SUNY Cortland in the SUNYAC championship game, 1-0, with Shelby Kondelka scoring the lone goal for the Hawks off a helper from Balestrieri. In the SUNYAC Tournament semifinals, New Paltz beat SUNY Fredonia, 1-0, at Dietz Stadium in Kingston, N.Y. New Paltz did not get off to the best start in 2011, dropping its opener to cross-river rival Vassar College and falling to New Jersey City University in the championship game of the Michelle Vargas-Robin Memorial Tournament to begin the season at 1-2. The Hawks quickly turned their season around with an eight-game unbeaten streak from Sept. 9 through the end of the month, which ended in a 1-0 loss to The College at Brockport in overtime on Oct. 1. The Hawks dropped two of their next three matchups before closing out the season with victories in three SUNYAC games. On Oct. 18, New Paltz defeated SUNY Oneonta, 1-0, marking the first time since 1988 that the Hawks took down the Red Dragons. They then shut out Fredonia three days later to clinch a spot in the 2011 SUNYAC Women s Soccer Championship Tournament. Their 2-2 tie with Buffalo State on the final day of the regular season locked up the No. 2 seed in the SUNYAC Tournament, and it earned the Hawks a

2 Stephanie Vega bye in the quarterfinal round. Fifteenth-year head coach Colleen Bruley led the Hawks to a program-record 14 victories and tied the school record in SUNYAC wins with six, earning herself SUNYAC Women s Soccer Coach of the Year honors for the second time during her tenure at New Paltz. With the Hawks victory in the conference title game, Bruley won her 100th career match. Awards were aplenty for the Hawks throughout the 2011 season. Kondelka and Shannon Cobb were both named to the All-SUNYAC First Team, while Beth Bowling, Emily Rokitowski and Vega all landed on the All-SUNYAC Second Team. Vega also earned the 2011 Women s Soccer Championship Tournament MVP while being named to the All-Tournament Team along with Cobb, Rokitowski and Samantha Abravanel. Cobb was also tabbed to the NSCAA NCAA Division III Women s All-East Region Third Team, while Bowling and Vega each earned SUNYAC Player of the Week honors once during the season. Vega shattered the New Paltz women s soccer record in single-season shutouts, holding opponents without a score an astonishing 13 times in With one more season to go in the blue and orange, she finds herself just three shutouts shy of Sarah Boccard s career record of 28 shutouts, which she set from Kondelka tied the program s singleseason assist record with six this season and finished one point shy of the program s single-season mark in the statistical category with 24 points. She also tied her career-high with nine netters, good for tops on the team in She heads into her senior season just three goals short Alesha Peimer s career record of 21 goals, which she set from , and is just seven points from the school s career record in points with 43. Shannon Cobb Bowling is also climbing the women s soccer record charts, standing in second on the school s all-time assists leaderboard with eight, needing five more to tie Kerri Kelty ( ). Men s Cross Country The New Paltz men s cross country showed overall top-to-bottom improvement in While the Hawks placed ninth out of 10 teams at the 2011 SUNYAC Cross Country Championships for the second time in as many years at Bowdoin Park on Oct. 29, they closed the gap between themselves and eighth-place Buffalo State. After losing an All-Conference runner in Joe Gentsch to graduation, the Hawk harriers stepped up, and they excelled in more prominent roles in the lineup. Jeff Raab moved up to 11th all-time in program history in the 8K, as he clocked a 27:10 at the Brooks Paul Short Run, while Nick Paolozzi s time of 27:24 at the same meet tied for the 26th-fastest time in program history. The season culminated with a 25thplace finish at the 2011 NCAA Division III Atlantic Regional Championships, moving up four spots from last year s showing, and New Paltz ran competitively at the 2011 SUNYAC Cross Country Championships, which the Hawks hosted. At both meets, Raab was the top Hawk finisher, placing 49th (27:49.22) in the 8K at the SUNYAC Nick Paolozzi Championships and 108th (27:31.5) in the 8K at the NCAA Regional Championships. Raab s third-place performance in the 8K at the Hamilton Invitational on Oct. 8 gave New Paltz the event s title its only of the season as the Hawks edged host Hamilton College for the top spot by three points. That result was buoyed by three other top-20 individual finishes, as Harry Collins, Ben Albers and Paolozzi placed 11th, 13th and 14th, respectively.

3 Women s Cross Country Nichole Wischoff of the New Paltz women s cross country team enjoyed arguably the most successful individual season in program history in 2011, as she qualified for the 2011 NCAA Division III Cross Country National Championships in Winneconne, Wis. This feat capped a monumental year for the program and for fifth-year head coach Mike Trunkes. New Paltz had an outstanding 2011 campaign as a team, boasting a 12thplace finish at the NCAA Regional Championships and a fifth-place finish at the SUNYAC Championships. The squad s performance at the regional meet was its best-ever, while its showing at the conference meet tied for its top finish in program history. At the national meet, Wischoff placed 103rd out of 277 runners in the 6K, navigating the course in a program-record time of 22: Wischoff also gained U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) All-Region honors by virtue of her 14th-place finish (22:31.0) at the 2011 NCAA Division III Atlantic Regional Championships and All-SUNYAC Second-Team laurels by virtue of her eighth-place finish (23:09.84) at the 2011 SUNYAC Cross Country Championships. She set the women s 6K program record four times in 2011, and at the Hamilton Invitational, she established the program record in the 5K with a time of 18:48.8. Several New Paltz harriers etched their names into the program s record book along with Wischoff. Amanda Wolfer became the second-fastest 6K runner in school history with a time of 23:20 at the Connecticut College Invitational, while Teresa Woych and Christina Bartonicek each tied for the fifth-fastest standard of all-time (24:06) at the same meet. Nikki McCarthy s 24:18.2 at NCAA Regionals wound up being the seventh-fastest run in program history, while Andrea Prusik s 24:23 performance at the Connecticut Nichole Wischoff College Invitational ranked eighth in the program s record book. In the 5K, Wolfer and Woych each made the program s top- 10 list at the Hamilton Invitational, turning in respective times of 19:51.4 (seventh) and 20:05.3 (10th). The Hawks boasted one win as a team during the course of the season, as they won the inaugural New Paltz Invitational at Bowdoin Park in Wappingers Falls, N.Y., on Sept. 10. New Paltz edged SUNY Oneonta by one point at the meet, and it was bolstered by fourth- and fifthplace finishes by Wolfer and Woych, who supplemented Wischoff s first-place performance. Field Hockey In a year where the 2011 State University of New York at New Paltz field hockey team qualified for its second consecutive SUNYAC Field Hockey Championship Tournament, the Hawks can also boast that their head coach, Shanna Vitale, was the 2011 SUNYAC Coach of the Year. Vitale led the Hawks to an 8-10 overall record as well as a 4-2 record in conference, making them the No. 3 seed in SUNYAC postseason play for the second year running. Similar to 2010, four New Paltz players Stacey Miller were named to All-Conference teams in Earning All-SUNYAC First-Team honors were Stacey Miller, Amy Lee and Alyssa Stock. Madeliene Forrester was selected to the All-SUNYAC Second Team. New Paltz, the third seed. went on to face second-seeded SUNY Oneonta in the semifinals of the SUNYAC Championship Tournament. The Hawks were handed an early 2-0 deficit by the middle of the first half, but a second-half, two-goal rally by Alicia Aragosa tied the game with just over 22 minutes remaining. A few minutes later, however, Oneonta scored the eventual game-deciding goal, ending New Paltz s season with a 3-2 decision. The Hawks came within one win of tying the program record for victories in a single season, established just one year prior. Miller s nine goals on the season upped her career total to 19, ranking fourth in program history, while she reached fifth on the all-time points chart with 44. Vitale s Coach of the Year award is the first in New Paltz field hockey history. Men s Soccer The 2011 New Paltz men s soccer team, in its first year under head coach Gene Ventriglia, found itself returning to the

4 SUNYAC Men s Soccer Championship Tournament for the first time since The Hawks amassed an overall record of while going in SUNYAC play. This earned the Hawks the No. 6 seed in the SUNYAC Tournament and a matchup with third-seeded SUNY Geneseo in the quarterfinals. For the first time since 1997, four players were named to an All-Conference team. Third-year captain Tommy Garafola was given the distinction of All-SUNYAC First Team. Garafola became the sixth Hawk ever to earn four All-SUNYAC honors in men s soccer. Jamal Lis- Simmons found himself on the Second Team, while the two Hawks who received All-SUNYAC Third-Team honors were Jimmy Altadonna and Nicholas DiPaola. Beyond conference awards, Garafola was selected to the NSCAA NCAA Division III Men s All-East Region Second Team The Hawks faced a formidable schedule in 2011, as evidenced by their first two matchups. New Paltz opened its schedule facing then-no. 25 Montclair State University in Montclair, N.J. The Hawks would lose a close match to the Red Hawks, 1-0, before traveling to Hoboken, N.J., to take on the then-no. 13 Stevens Institute of Technology. Despite losing a player to a red card in the 71st minute, the Hawks stunned the Ducks, taking a 1-0 decision. New Paltz faced one more opponent who was nationally ranked at the time of competition: hosting then-no. 19 SUNY Plattsburgh on Oct. 7. For the first time in 23 years, the Hawks defeated the Cardinals, 1-0. After a strong conference season, New Paltz saw its 2011 campaign continue on Oct. 29, when New Paltz took on SUNY Geneseo at Caledonia-Mumford High School in Caledonia, N.Y., in quarterfinal action of the 2011 SUNYAC Championship Tournament. The Blue Knights defeated the Hawks in a backand-forth overtime decision, 3-2, to end New Paltz s season. The Hawks were able to shut out their opponent six times during the 2011 campaign, twice boasting clean sheets over nationally-ranked opposition (Stevens and Plattsburgh). In his last season, Garafola managed to tie his career-high in assists with eight, which ranked second among SUNYAC players in Women s Tennis The New Paltz women s tennis team finished among the top two in the SUNYAC for the 10th straight year in 2011, as the Hawks advanced to the conference final, falling to SUNY Geneseo, 5-1, at the Eastside Racquet Club in Manlius, N.Y. The 2011 SUNYAC Women s Tennis Championship Tournament was run in a team playoff format rather than the flighted format that was used in years past. Kayla DiPaulo earned All-Conference honors in both doubles and singles. She was a First-Team All-SUNYAC selection at No. 2 doubles with Devin Tracy and was a Second-Team choice at second singles. In addition, Paige Munroe earned First- Team honors at third singles. The Hawks reached the championship match at the 2011 SUNYAC Women s Tennis Championship Tournament by downing SUNY Oswego, 9-0, in the quarterfinals and edging SUNY Oneonta, 6-3, in the semifinals. New Paltz received the East Division s No. 1 seed after going 3-0 in league matches during the regular season. New Paltz s season began on Sept. 3 with a 9-0 victory over SUNY Oswego, and the following weekend, the Hawks came out 3-0 East Division Pool Play. The Hawks suffered their first loss of the season on Sept. 16 against SUNY Geneseo before rebounding the following day with a 7-2 triumph over The College at Brockport. The weekend before the SUNYAC Tournament, New Paltz tuned up with a match against the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a triangular with Vassar College and New York University. The Hawks begin the 2012 portion of their schedule from March 31 through April 1 when they travel to Wellesley, Mass., for the Wellesley Tournament. Women s Volleyball For the eighth straight season, the New Paltz women s volleyball team eclipsed the 25-win mark, finishing overall while amassing a 6-2 record in SUNYAC East Division play in The squad earned the East Division s No. 2 seed in the 2011 SUNYAC Women s Volleyball Championship Tournament and was able to reach the SUNYAC title game for the fourth consecutive year. Freshman libero Katy Herbst (Webster, N.Y./Webster Schroeder) was named SUNYAC East Division Rookie of the Year, while four of her teammates earned recognition on All-SUNYAC East Division teams. Melinda DiGiovanna was given All-SUNYAC East First-Team honors, while Carrie Hack, Marissa King and Dana Vosilla were all named to the All-SUNYAC East Second Team. In addition, DiGiovanna was named to the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) All-New York Region Team, and by virtue of that honor, she was tabbed as an honorable mention All-American. The Hawks entered the year with a 32-match winning streak at the Hawk Center. That streak reached 33 before New Paltz lost its first match of its own Hawks Invitational, falling to SUNY Fredonia, 3-0 (25-22, 26-24, 25-20). The Hawks went 2-2 in the tournament, suffering the only two losses of their home record. New Paltz dominated SUNYAC East Pool Play, going 3-1 in both rounds with

5 Melinda DiGiovanna its only losses coming against nationallyranked SUNY Cortland. The Hawks won in straight sets in three SUNYAC East matchups and collected 16 straight-set victories over the course of their 2011 campaign. Entering the SUNYAC Championship Tournament with the East s No. 2 seed, New Paltz drew West No. 3 SUNY Geneseo in the quarterfinal round. The Hawks dispatched the Knights in straight sets, 3-0 (25-13, 25-21, 25-15), before entering a five-set nail-biter against the West s No. 1, Fredonia. The Hawks ultimately avenged their loss from the Hawks Invitational with the 3-2 (19-25, 25-17, 23-25, 25-23, 15-12) seesaw decision. In the SUNYAC final, the Blue and Orange found themselves opposite Cortland for the third straight season. Host Cortland, at the time ranked 18th nationally, handed the Hawks their final loss of the season, 3-0 (25-23, 25-19, 25-22), allowing the Red Dragons to gain the SUNYAC s automatic bid into the Tommy Garafola NCAA Division III Women s Volleyball Championship Tournament. DiGiovanna finished her New Paltz volleyball career ranked second in program history in digs with 1,606 and third in assists with 1,298. Head coach Matt Giufre, a three-time SUNYAC Coach of the Year, has now coached four SUNYAC East Rookies of the Year in his 10-year tenure while amassing a career record of overall with a record in conference play. Follow the Hawks on the Web at on or on Facebook by searching for New Paltz Hawks. Kayla DiPaulo Liz Student Selected to Lead New Paltz Women s Lacrosse Liz (Wells) Student, the current assistant women s lacrosse coach at the University of Redlands in Redlands, Calif., has been named the fifth head coach in the history of the State University of New York at New Paltz women s lacrosse program, as announced Wednesday by New Paltz director of athletics Stuart Robinson. Student will begin her duties on Jan. 9, We are extremely excited to have Liz join our staff and take over our women s lacrosse program, Robinson said. Her experiences as a student-athlete at Nazareth and as an assistant coach in the sport have prepared her well for this opportunity, and I look forward to working with her as she develops our program.

6 Liz Student Student has most recently served as an assistant women s lacrosse coach at Redlands, an NCAA Division III university in Southern California, since January As an assistant coach, she was charged with mentoring team members; planning and executing practices; recruiting; editing video; creating game plans; coordinating all travel; fundraising; and ordering equipment. During her two years there, the Bulldogs achieved an overall mark of 24-13, and in 2011, Redlands earned its first-ever berth into the NCAA Division III Women s Lacrosse Championship Tournament, gaining one of nine Pool C bids. The Bulldogs fielded one of the most prolific attacks in all of NCAA Division III in 2011, finishing out the season ranked eighth in scoring offense (16.5 goals per game). Before Redlands, she assisted with the women s lacrosse program at Claremont- Mudd-Scripps Colleges in Claremont, Calif., during the 2008 and 2009 seasons, helping lead the Athenas to back-to-back NCAA Tournament berths. Former head swimming & diving coach Art Stockin at Fall Alumni Weekend Student boasts experience as a coach outside of the collegiate ranks as well. She has served as the head lacrosse coach at Team OC Lacrosse since August 2011, and from , she volunteered as an assistant with the Ithaca High School girls varsity lacrosse team. In addition, she provided instruction and ran drills at the annual Nazareth College Women s Lacrosse Camp from An accomplished student-athlete at NCAA Division III Nazareth College, Student was a defender on the Golden Flyers Empire 8 championship teams in 2005 and Nazareth qualified for the NCAA Tournament in each of Student s four years on the team, and the Golden Flyers recorded an overall mark of during her college career. Individually, she was an Intercollegiate Women s Lacrosse Coaches Association (IWLCA) All-Region Second-Team honoree in 2006, an Empire 8 Conference All-Star in 2006 (First Team) and 2007 (Second Team), an All-Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Upstate Division III Women s Lacrosse selection in 2006 and a New York State Women s Collegiate Athletic Association (NYSWCAA) Third-Team All-Star in Student obtained her Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology from Nazareth. I m very excited to jump right in and build the New Paltz women s lacrosse program, Student said. This team has lots of potential, and I just want to jump into this season and watch how things go. I want to thank Stuart and the rest of the staff for making this such a desirable place to work, and there is a great winning environment already established in the department. I m very fortunate for this opportunity and am excited to get to work. New Paltz kicks off its 2012 season on Wednesday, March 7, when it travels to Newburgh, N.Y., to take on regional rival Mount Saint Mary College at 4 p.m. in non-conference action. New Paltz Athletics Celebrates Alumni at Fall Alumni Weekend On Saturday, Sept. 24, 2011, the State University of New York at New Paltz Department of Athletics, Wellness & Recreation celebrated alumni from its spring sport and swimming programs during the Fall Alumni Weekend. While wet field conditions at an offcampus site and a venue change for a conference women s soccer game canceled the baseball and women s lacrosse alumni games, respectively, 49 alumni showed up on campus to reconnect with their programs and acquaint themselves with the current student-athletes. The baseball alumni joined head coach Matt Griffiths coaching staff and team

7 Save the Date!: Spring 2012 Alumni Weekend On April 28, 2012, the State University of New York at New Paltz will be hosting the second annual Spring Alumni Weekend for all alumni from the basketball, cross country, field hockey, soccer, women s tennis and volleyball programs. Check for updates on times and locations as the date approaches. Stuart Robinson Shannon Corrigan 06 for a golf outing at Apple Greens Golf Course in lieu of an alumni game. Seven alumni showed up for the event. New Paltz Ranks Fourth in SUNYAC Commissioner s Cup Standings After Fall Season New Paltz sits fourth out of 10 schools in the State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) Commissioner s Cup standings after the fall season with a score of 6.89, as announced Wednesday by the conference office. The Commissioner s Cup point system is determined by the 20 different conference sports in the fall, winter and spring. A 10-point system is used in each sport. The first-place team gets 10 points, the second-place team gets nine and so on. A team s regular-season finish is added to its postseason finish and divided by two for its final total for that sport. The total number of points that a school accumulates is divided by the number of conference sports it has. This school total determines the overall winner at the end of the year. The Hawks sit behind first-place SUNY Geneseo (8.18), second-place SUNY Cortland (8.14) and third-place SUNY Oneonta (7.36). SUNY Fredonia (5.83), SUNY Plattsburgh (5.71), The College at Brockport (5.50), SUNY Oswego (3.18), Buffalo State (3.10) and SUNY Potsdam (2.50) round out the rest of the standings. New Paltz qualified for a total of three conference finals during the fall of 2011 (women s volleyball, women s tennis and women s soccer), and women s soccer claimed its first-ever league title by defeating Cortland, 1-0, in the title match. Men s soccer qualified for the SUNYAC Men s Soccer Championship Tournament for the first time since 2004, as it entered the championship tournament as the No. 6 seed before falling to Geneseo in the quarterfinal round. Field hockey made the SUNYAC Field Hockey Championship Tournament for the second time in as many years, claiming the league s No. 3 seed, while women s cross country and men s cross country placed fifth and ninth, respectively, at the 2011 SUNYAC Cross Country Championships. Last year, New Paltz finished fifth in the Commissioner s Cup standings, which was its highest finish in the history of the department. New Paltz sponsors 14 sports affiliated with the SUNYAC: baseball, men s and women s basketball, men s and women s cross country, field hockey, women s lacrosse, men s and women s soccer, softball, men s and women s swimming, women s tennis and women s volleyball. Cortland has won 14 of the 15 Commissioner s Cups awarded since the competition began during the academic year. Geneseo won the Commissioner s Cup in

8 D E PA R T M E N T O F AT H L E T I C S State University of New York at New Paltz 1 Hawk Drive New Paltz, NY Non-profit Organization U.S. Postage PAID Newburgh, NY Permit No. 6127