2009 Recap

It's officially the last week of Golden Eagles sports in 2009. Last night I was sitting in my nest and thinking of how awesome this year really was at Brockport...

We kicked it off late in February as our both out men's and women's basketball teams were SUNYAC Champions. It was the first time EVER that both teams made it to the Division III NCAA Tournament in the same season!

Our hockey team had a great end to the season in 2009 winning 14 games as well by hosting their first ever SUNYAC home tournament game. Oh yea, they won it too and moved on the SUNYAC semi-final.
The snow melted which meant our spring teams were ready to compete.

Our softball team made school history by sending six players to the All-SUNYAC team. The team was eliminated in the ECAC tournament. Senior Rachel Maxon earned an Academic All-American honor being named to ESPN's Academic All-American second team! Another reason why the classroom is so important!

For baseball, our Golden Eagles made it to the championship round of the SUNYAC tournament where they lost to rival SUNY Cortland. Brockport advanced to the ECAC tournament championship where they lost to St. John Fisher. The Golden Eagles still placed three players on the All-SUNYAC first team.

It was another successful year for our track and field teams. Our women's team finished with a SUNYAC title! Brockport also sent three players to the NCAA Division III Championships. Senior Dom Gonzalez earned his second All-american honor and a sixth place finish in the hammer throw at the championships.

School was then out for the summer and I got to head on down to the Carribean (what? It's my one time to actually get away. I am one verrrrrry busy bird!)

Late August arrived and cars started to flock the campus as students returned for the 2009-2010 school year. If you were an athlete you were back on campus a couple weeks before. Same went for me! I had mascot training as well. Double sessions were rough as I had to out-cheer the Cardinal from St. John Fisher and the Bomber from University of Rochester.

Anyways, back to the sports.

The fall season brought a lot of success to our soccer teams. Our men's team went on to beat nationally ranked SUNY Plattsburgh in the SUNYAC Championship game for the first time since 1978 and headed to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2004.

Congrats to our Women's Soccer team as well. They won the ECAC Upstate Tournament that was held here on campus. This week Nicole Gibaud and Jess VanAllen were named to the third team on the All-region team. Congrats girls!

And lastly, our football team finished up the year at 4-6. The season was highlighted by many school records were broken. QB Jake Graci broke many season records with pass attempts, passing yards, touchdown passes, and tied his own record twice of five touchdowns in a game.


Ok, now back to fast forwarding to right now. Last night our women's basketball team lost a tough one to Ithaca 57-49. Whitney Smith led the way for the Golden Eagles with 24 points. Brockport is now 1-5.

And the last game of the semester is this Friday night when our hockey team hosts Western New England. It's the last game of the year, so trust me I am going all out. Puck drops at 7:00 and we will have tons of contests and prizes. Come support your Golden Eagles!

That's all for now, and thanks for making 2009 special for Brockport Athletics.

-Ellz

It's the Holiday Season!

Hey all,

Hope you had a great Thanksgiving with family and friends. The Ellz household was rocking as usual on the holidays. We had turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, and much more.

Well as all of us were enjoying the long weekend and kicking our feet back, some of our teams were out competing!

Before we headed to break, our men's basketball team hit the road (literally just down Interstate 490) to take on St. John Fisher. Although senior Brandon Williams had a career high 13 points, Brockport lost to the Cardinals 78-61.

Most of our hockey team couldn't make it home for the holidays because they had to hit the road for the Skidmore Invitational. On Friday night, Todd Sheridan made 27 saves as the Golden Eagles shutout Western New England 5-0. The Golden Eagles were champions of the tournament on Saturday after they topped Nichols College 6-3. Sean O'Malley was named the tournament's MVP while Tom Galiani and Sheridan made the All-Tournament team.

And now your athletes of the week:

For the men:

Sean O'Malley

Senior Sean O’Malley (Lakewood, OH) led The College at Brockport Ice Hockey team to a pair of wins and the 2009 Championship of the Skidmore Invitational to earn male athlete of the week honors.

The senior forward scored the second goal in the 5-0 win over the University of New England and opened the scoring on a power play in the 6-3 win over Nichols College. On the weekend, O’Malley sparked a power play unit that accounted for five goals to earn the Most Valuable Player of the tournament.



For the women:

Lauren Mesi

Senior Lauren Mesi (East Aurora, NY/Clarence) finished 75th at the NCAA Division III Championship meet at Baldwin-Wallace College in Ohio to earn female athlete of the week honors.

Mesi was the lone representative for The College at Brockport cross country team and completed the six-kilometer course in 23:22.

The All-Region runner qualified for nationals with a 15th-place finish at the Atlantic Regional meet last weekend. Mesi finished eighth among Atlantic Region runners at nationals.


Open up your advent calenders everyone! December and the snow is finally here and don't worry I won't be migrating at all this winter!!! Go Golden Eagles!!!

-Ellsworth

Athletes of the Week and Thanksgiving!

First off congrats to our Golden Eagle Athletes of the Week!

For the men:

Luke Pariso

Luke Pariso (Darien, NY/Attica) is this week’s male athlete of the week after he won the individual title at 184 pounds at the Doug Parker Tournament at Springfield College.

The freshman helped lead the Golden Eagles to a second place finish out of 18 teams with 133.5 points while 15th ranked Williams College captured the team title with 136 points.

Pariso opened the tournament with a pin at 2:16 over Jake Greenwood from Plymouth State and then won a 3-1 decision over Jefferson Ajaya from Wesleyan University. In his third match, Pariso scored an 8-0 decision over Trinity’s William Youngblood to advance to the championship final. Pariso won the title at 184 with a 7-4 decision over Nate Sharpee from Williams College.

To the women:

Whitney Smith

Whitney Smith (Webster, NY/Webster-Thomas) is this week’s female athlete of the week after being named to the RIT All-Tournament team.

The senior guard helped lead the Golden Eagles to a 1-1 record while scoring in double figures in each game. She scored a career-high 31 points on 11-of-17 from the field including 3-for-4 from 3-point range and hit all six of her free throws in the victory over Cazenovia and added six rebounds and five assists.
Smith totaled 16 points, six boards and four assists in the one point loss to St. Lawrence.

On the season she leads the team in scoring, averaging 22.7 points per game.


A quick recap:

Our basketball teams did fantastic in their weekend tournaments. The women finished with a 1-1 record including losing a heart breaker to St. Lawerence 51-50 as we missed a free throw with just over one second remaining in the game :-(. They rebounded to a huge win on Sunday 92-70 over Cazenovia with senior Whitney Smith scoring a career-high 31 points.

The men finished 2-0 on the weekend in the University of Rochester tournament thanks to tournament MVP Jermaine Johnson with team-highs of 20 points in Friday's game and 17 points in Saturday's game. Brockport is 3-0 so far this season! Great job guys!

Only one game for hockey on the weekend as they lost to Geneseo 2-1. Sean O'Malley scored Brockport's loan goal. Senior Todd Sheridan made 26 saves between the pipes.

Another slow week this week because of the holidays. Our men's basketball team has a big showdown at St. John Fisher Tuesday night at 7. Everyone should make the short drive and watch your Golden Eagles! This weekend, our hockey team takes part in the Skidmore Invitational with a game on Saturday and Sunday.

Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving! (you know....the one holiday that I'm thankful I'm an eagle and not a turkey!)

-Ellsworth

Out with the Fall, In with the Winter

Hey all!!!

A great finish to many of the fall sports this past weekend.

Our women's soccer team defended their title from 2008 and were named 2009 ECAC Division III Upstate Champions after they beat Medaille Sunday afternoon 3-1. Congrats goes out to all the Golden Eagle seniors who wore the green and gold for the last time. Senior Michelle Gibaud was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player after she finished the weekend with three goals and one assist.

On the men's side, the opened up their NCAA tournament with a 2-1 win (5-3 on penalty kicks) over Ohio Northern on Thursday. It was the second straight game for Brockport that was decided on penalty kicks as they won 11-10 against Plattsburgh in the SUNYAC Championship game last week.

The men lost yesturday afternoon to #1 seeded Messiah 3-1. Steve Abgarian scored the loan goal for the Golden Eagles, who finish up their season 10-6-4.

To Football:

Brockport finished up 2009 on a high note beating Buffalo State 48-30 and regaining the I-90 cup for the eighth straight year. Plenty of records were broken including the team record for yards in a game with 728 yards on the day. The record broke the previous mark that was held since 1968.

Athletes of the Week:

Male:

Felipe Diaz

Senior Felipe Diaz (Syracuse, NY/Onondaga) was named The College at Brockport male athlete of the week.
Diaz led the Golden Eagles with eight catches as the football team posted a 48-30 victory over Buffalo State in a NJAC game at Buffalo State. The win was the eighth straight over the Bengals as Brockport retained the I-90 Cup that it has held since 2000.
Diaz set the school record for career receptions with his fifth catch of the day and 130th of his career and broke his own record for catches in a season with his eighth of the day and 65th of the season.


Female:

Michelle Gibaud

Senior Michelle Gibaud (Rochester, NY/Greece Arcadia) was named The College at Brockport female athlete of the week.
Gibaud led the women’s soccer team to a 3-1 victory over Medaille College in the championship game of the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Upstate Tournament.
She was named the Tournament's Most Outstanding Player after scoring two goals in the 6-0 semifinal win over SUNYIT and added the game winning goal and an assist in the championship game.
She finished the season with seven goals and three assists and ends her career 15th on the all-time scoring chart with 51 points on 18 goals and 15 assists.



That's all for now!

-Ellsworth

Athletes of the Week and more.....

Hey all, here are this week's athletes of the week:

Joe Marino

Junior goalie Joe Marino (Rochester, NY/McQuaid) earns male athlete of the week honors after leading the men's soccer team to their first State University of New York Athletic Conference men's soccer championship since 1978 by virtue of taking the penalty-kick shootout, 11-10, over Plattsburgh State.

Marino made nine saves including a big save on the deciding penalty kick in the shootout to earn the SUNYAC tournament most valuable player and record his seventh shutout of the season.

In the semifinal game against Geneseo, Marino made four saves to earn the victory.

Alyssa Fitchette

Senior Alyssa Fitchette (Watertown, NY/Watertown) led the women's volleyball team to the semifinals of the SUNYAC Tournament to earn female athlete of the week honors.

The Golden Eagles defeated SUNY Oneonta in straight sets in the quarterfinals before falling to eventual SUNYAC Champion SUNY New Paltz in the semifinals.

Fitchette totaled 15 kills and 13 digs in the win over Oneonta and registered 13 kills and 11 digs against New Paltz to earn All-Tournament honors.

On the season, Fitchette led the team with 462 kills and 105 blocks. Her hitting percentage of .353 stands fourth on the all-time season chart at Brockport.


On Monday, we found out the postseason future for both soccer teams. For the men, they will travel to Ohio to take on Ohio Northern in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Thursday at 1pm.

As for the women, they will host the ECAC Tournament this weekend here in Brockport. Their first game is Saturday at 11am against SUNYIT. If they win, they move on to the championship game on Sunday at noon against the winner of Medaille and Sage college.

Thats it for now.....

-Ellsworth

Big upset in Men's Soccer!!!

Hey everyone,

Lots of sports on campus this week, but it was the game seven hours away that was the biggest story. Our men's soccer team took on 20th ranked Plattsbugh in the SUNYAC Championship game on Saturday. After regulation, neither team had netted a goal. The scoreboard remained 0-0 after two 10 minute overtimes which meant shootouts would settle the championship! In the 14th round, Brockport goalie Joe Marino stopped Plattsburgh's attempt to equal the shootout. Marino's save gave the Golden Eagles a 11-10 win and their first SUNYAC title since 1978!!!

Hockey took the ice in Tuttle North for the first time of the season this weekend. On Friday, Brockport provided drama with a 4-3 OT win. Sean O'Malley netted the winner 27 seconds into the overtime period. Brockport lost on Saturday in a non-conference game against Hobart 4-1. Tom Galiani scored for the Golden Eagles.

To Football, Brockport welcomed on in Cortland to Special Olympics Stadium. Despite having the lead at halftime, Brockport (2-6 in the NJAC, 3-6 Overall) loss to the Red Dragons 56-42. QB Jake Graci threw for 300 yards and three touchdowns. Aaron Zurn scored a touchdown on the ground as well for Brockport.

Athletes of the week released tomorrow....stay tuned for the winners!!!

-Ellsworth

Athletes of the Week

Here are this week's athletes of the week:

Jake Graci

Senior quarterback Jake Graci (Farnham, NY/Lake Shore) is the male athlete of the week for The College at Brockport.

Graci threw for 263 yards and completed touchdown passes to four different wide receivers to lead the football team to a 59-28 victory over SUNY Morrisville Saturday in a New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) game. The win snapped a five-game losing streak.

Graci moved into third place on the all-time Brockport list for passing yards in a season and is just shy of 2,000 passing yards with 1,961 so far this season.

Graci currently leads the NJAC in passing yards with 245.0 per game.

For the Women:

Lauren Mesi

Senior Lauren Mesi (East Aurora, NY/Clarence) is the female athlete of the week for The College at Brockport as the women’s cross country team finished fourth.

She earned first team All-SUNYAC and was named into the Cross County Hall of Fame as she finished third overall in a field of 99 runners in the SUNYAC Championships with a time of 23:32.

Mesi is the fifth female runner at Brockport to earn Hall of Fame status and the first since 2007. To make the SUNYAC Cross Country Hall of Fame, runners must finish in the top five at the SUNYAC Championships once, the top 10 twice, or the top 15 three times.

A quick recap on the weekend:

The football team ended their five-game losing streak with a 59-28 win over Morrisville. Jake Graci was 16-28 good for 263 yards and four touchdowns. His performance earned him NJAC Offensive Player of the Week. Matt Newman led the way receiving for Brockport, six catches for 118 yards. The Golden Eagles welcome SUNY Cortland to Special Olympics Stadium this Saturday at 1 pm.

To Women's Soccer:

Brockport SUNYAC title hopes ended as Cortland pulled out a 1-0 victory. Brockport has declared to play in the upcoming ECAC tournament. You bet I'll post the games and times when they are announced!

That's it for now, Go Golden Eagles!