Senior forward Brittany Cressman was named the
Liberty League's “Player of the Year” for women's soccer. Cressman, a native of Duxbury, Massachusetts
and a graduate of Duxbury High School, was one of eight Dutchwomen chosen to the first or
second team.
“This is tremendous for Brittany and for our program,” said
10th-year head coach Brian Speck.
The women's soccer team wasn't the only squad to garner
individual Liberty League honors. The
men's team placed junior midfielder Mark Susko (Short Hills, NJ/Pingry
School) and junior defender Ryan McAleese (Walpole, MA/Walpole) on
the second team. Freshman forward Chris
Poey (Amherst, MA/Amherst Regional) joined senior midfielder Mike Carey
(Westport, CT/Staples) has an honorable mention selection.
Finally, sophomore forward Jessica Trotter (St. Louis,
MO/John Boroughs) represented Union's field hockey squad as an
All-Conference second team selection.
The volleyball All-Conference awards will be announced
following this weekend's tournament at Vassar while the football announcement
will be later this month at the conclusion of the regular season.
The other four players named to the women's first team were
junior forward Cassandra Mariani, (Boonton, NJ/Morris Catholic) freshman
midfielder Caitlin Cuozzo (Norfolk, MA/King Philip Regional), senior
defender Briana Bailey (Easthampton, MA/Easthampton) and junior
goaltender Julie Gawronski (Dunkirk, NY/Dunkirk).
Selected to the second team were junior forward Erika
Eisenhut (Mohawk, NY/Mohawk), junior midfielder Marissa VanWoeart
(Schenectady, NY/Schalmont), and junior defender Linsey Capecelatro
(Orange, CT/Loomis Chaffee).
Cressman (who has scored 16 goals,
18 assists and 50 points for the entire season…including playoffs..and 17-17-41 during the regular season) and Mariani (17-7-41) finished the
regular-season tied for the league scoring championship.
Cressman was a two-time “Performer
of the Week” award winner with Mariani capturing the honor three times during
the regular season. The Duxbury, Massachusetts, native finished her outstanding career second on Union's all-time scoring list with 49 goals, 43 assists and 141 points. Her 43 career assists are a team record as are the 18 helpers she had this year.
Gawronski who was named the
Liberty League's Defensive Performer of the week twice this year, leads the
league in overall shutouts, as well as in goals against average. She is
seventh in saves and 10th in saves per game. Against Liberty League
opponents, Julie is second in shutouts, tied for sixth in saves and is eighth
in saves per game. Julie, who has a three-year record of 41-6-1, broke the
program's standard of 40 set by Shannon Powers, from 1996 through
1999. She also has 24 career shutouts to tie the mark of Carolyn
Stead, which was established between 1999 and 2002. Her 14 shutouts this
year is a Union single-season record. Last season she posted an overall
record of 19-2-1, a Union standard for wins in a season.
Cuozzo finished the regular
season sixth in overall assists. She
has been a key player in Union's transition game, helping the offense score 63
goals while helping the defense allow just four in 18 games. Bailey, meanwhile, is part of a defense that
has given up just four goals all year long.
Along with her defensive skills, she is fourth in the overall statistics
in assists and sixth in assists per game.
Last year she was an All-Conference second-team selection.
Eisenhut was fifth in overall
points and sixth in points per game, tied for sixth in goals and ninth in goals
per game, second in assists and third in assists per game, and is tied for
fourth in game-winning goals. In the
Liberty League, Erika first in assists and first in assists per game, is fourth
in scoring and in points per game, and tied for ninth in goals and is 10th in
goals per game. She has been an
All-Conference first-team selection each of her first two seasons.
VanWoeart is an extremely
aggressive midfielder who wins 90 percent of 50/50 balls. She was an All-Conference second team
selection last season. Capecelatro is a
tremendous center back with outstanding skill and composure.
It was also announced
yesterday that Eisenhut and Gawronski were also named CoSIDA District I second
team Academic All-Americans. A student-athlete must have a 3.2 cumulative
grade point average in order to be nominated.
Eisenhut is majoring in math and psychology while Gawronksi is a
psychology and English major.
The second-seeded Dutchwomen
(16-1-1//6-1) travel to meet No. 3 William Smith (12-2-2/5-2) on Friday, November
5 at 1:30 at Hamilton in the Liberty League postseason tournament. The top-seeded Continentals (12-1-1/6-0-1) take on
No. 4 Skidmore (13-4-1/4-2-1) Friday at 11 a.m. The championship is set
for Saturday at 1 p.m. at Hamilton. Union is looking for its third
consecutive league tournament title, which would ensure the Garnet's
sixth-straight NCAA appearance.
Speck, who has an overall record of 145-34-13, has led the
Dutchwomen to their eighth-straight season in which they have won at least 12
games. This year the team finished the
regular season at 16-1-1 despite losing seven seniors, including five starters,
from last year's 19-2-1 NCAA team. The
Dutchwomen are looking for their sixth-straight trip to the NCAAs. Union goes into
the tournament riding a 10-game win streak.
Despite losing Kevin O'Connor, the Dutchmen's senior
starting, and record-setting goalie in the seventh game of the season, head
coach Jeff Guinn led the Dutchmen to their first-ever Liberty League
tournament. This marks the fourth-consecutive
winning season (10-6-1) for the program, the first time that has happened since
the seasons of 1983, 1984, 1985 and 1986.
Susko is a quick, skillful central midfielder and a
playmaker for the Dutchmen's attack. His assist produced the game-winner
against Utica. McAleese has been the Dutchmen's key player on defense since
losing O'Connor. Union has given up an
average of 4.15 shots on goal overall this season. Carey's four assists lead the Dutchmen. He was an All-Conference
second-team selection in 2003. Poey,
meanwhile, was a two-time Liberty League Rookie of the Week winner. He leads
the Dutchmen in scoring despite not playing the first part of the season and
not starting until mid-season. Overall
he is sixth in points and fifth in goals and is tied for the league lead with
his three game-winning goals. In league
play, Chris is sixth in points and fifth in goals and is tied for the lead in
game-winning goals with two.
Union will take on No. 2
Hamilton (10-3-1/4-2-1) on Friday at 1:30, November 5, at top-seeded St. Lawrence (14-2/7-0), which
battles No. 4 Rensselaer (9-5-3/4-3) at 11 a.m. The championship is
set for Saturday at noon at St. Lawrence. The Dutchmen are 5-0-1 in their last
six games.
Trotter, who helped the Dutchwomen
to their highest win total since 2001, was a two-time “Offensive Player of the
Week.” In her first year of college
field hockey after playing soccer as a freshman, Trotter's 13 overall goals is
the most since Yvonne Turchette scored nine in 2000 and saw her finish second
in the league. Four of those tallies were game-winners.