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Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2006
ATHLETES COP FIVE MAJOR LITTLE EAST AWARDS
In all, fifteen individuals in three sports recognized as All-LEC
WILLIMANTIC, Conn. – Defensive specialist Marianna Capomolla (Sr./Stamford) repeated as Little East Conference Defensive Player-of-the-Year in women’s volleyball, headlining a list of five Eastern Connecticut State University major award-winners and 15 all-conference selections in the sports of men’s and women’s soccer and women’s volleyball.
Capomolla was one of three Eastern athletes named as a conference Defensive Player-of-the-Year, joining Jay Barney (Jr./Mansfield) in men’s soccer and Michelle Read (Sr./Wallingford) in women’s soccer (Read shared the award with senior keeper Jenna Cappellieri of Western Connecticut).
Additional major award-winners were middle blocker Emma Sousa (Jr./Coventry) in women’s volleyball and forward Maxim Fantl (Fr./West Hartford) in men’s soccer. Sousa was named Offensive Player-of-the-Year and Fantl Rookie-of-the-Year.
Women’s Volleyball
Eastern dominated the seven-player first-team all-conference team with four picks. Capomolla repeated as a first-team selection – earning a spot on the all-conference team for the third straight year -- and was joined on the first team by Sousa, outside hitter Jessica Keogh (Sr.Monroe) and setter Priscilla Dougherty (Jr./Island Park, NY). Right-side hitter Lesley Mumford (Sr./Yartmouth, MA) was named to the second team.
Capomolla was a second-team pick in her first year at Eastern as a sophomore in 2004. Sousa was a second-team selection as a freshman in 2004 and Keogh a second-team pick as a junior last year.
Through the regular season, Sousa was the conference’s runaway point leader, with 695 (points are calculated by adding kills, service aces, block solos, and half of block assist total). She is also a three-time conference Offensive Player-of-the-Week and named to all-tournament teams at Endicott and MIT. This year, Sousa has set a season program record with 110 block assists, with her team-leading 573 kills the second-most in a season in program history. She also leads Eastern in attack percentage (.324), block solos (30) and total blocks (140).
Capomolla repeated as conference playoff MVP and was named the conference’s Defensive Player-of-the-Week four times. This year, she has broken the program record record for career digs and brings a career total of 1,901 into NCAA play. Her team-leading total of 738 is the second-highest mark in program history -- 37 shy of establishing a season record. Capomolla has also received a team-high 1,012 serves and has compiled a team-high .958 percentage. Over the weekend, Capomolla became the fifth player in program history with as many as 200 career service aces. She has 207 in her career, a team-leading 98 coming this year.
Dougherty, the team’s only healthy setter, has amassed a season-record 1,260 assists. In the conference tournament, she became the fifth player in program history to record as many as 2,000 assists in a career. She has a career total of 2,060.
Keogh is second to Sousa with 327 kills and a .216 attack percentage and second to Capmolla with 73 service aces.
The 6-foot-1 inch Mumford is third on the team with 224 kills and second in block solos (14), assists (72) and total blocks (86).
Eastern (30-9) qualified for its second straight NCAA tournament Saturday by repeating as playoff champion of the Little East Conference and will open play in the eight-team New England Regional Tournament Thursday at 1 p.m. against Commonwealth Coast Conference champion Endicott College (25-12).
Prior to Capomolla (twice) and Sousa, Eastern’s previous Player-of-the-Year choice had been Michelle Cunningham in 1998.
Men’s Soccer
Barney was named to the all-conference team for the second time in three years, earning first-team honors this year. As a freshman in 2004, Barney was the conference’s Rookie-of-the-Year and was named to the all-conference second team. He missed four matches last year with a shoulder injury.
Eastern midfielder Elvis Perndoj (Sr./Lezha, Albania) repeated first-team honors. That duo was joined on the first team by defender Pat Kozloski (Sr./Oxford). Fantl gained second-team honors.
With Barney, Eastern led all conference teams by compiling ten shutouts and allowing only 14 goals all season. Barney started all 15 matches in which he appeared for the 7-5-6 Warriors and finished as the conference leader in goals-against average (0.70) and in save percentage (.885). He allowed only three total goals – never more than one in a match – in his final ten starts and posted conference shutouts in his final three starts over UMass Boston, Southern Maine, and Rhode Island College. Barney was named Defensive Player-of-the-Week in each of the final two weeks of the regular season.
Under 17th-year head coach Frantz Innocent, Barney ranks first among goalies in full shutouts (16), total shutouts (18.85) and goals-against average (0.91).
Perndoj becomes the first Eastern player since Demian DeVega in 1992 to repeat first-team all-conference accolades. A second-year transfer from Manchester Community College, Perndoj had
a goal and assist this year after collecting four goals, a team-high seven assists and team-tying 15 points in 2005. He concluded a four-year collegiate career with 22 goals and 30 assists.
A four-year starter, Kozloski was recognized by the conference for the first time. Kozloski never missed a game in his career – appearing in all possible 73 and starting every match the last three seasons. He led this year’s team in minutes (1,689) and average minutes (93.8). Under Innocent, he ranks in a tie for fourth in appearances and fifth in starts.
Fantl played both midfield and forward this year and led the Warriors in goals (7) and points (16) and winning Rookie-of-the-Week honors once (Oct.1). He appeared in all 18 matches with 14 starts – starting the first six matches and the last eight and recording game-winning goals against UMass Boston and Roger Williams. Fantl becomes the program’s third Rookie-of-the-Year, following Barney in 2004 and defender Sean Lester in 1990.
Women’s Soccer
In addition to sharing the Defensive Player-of-the-Year Award, Read was one of six Eastern players named to the all-conference team as the Warriors matched regular-season and playoff champion Western Connecticut State University with six overall selections. Melissa Lambert (Sr./Montville) and first-year transfer Nicole Gaudette (So./Colchester) joined Read as first-team all-conference defenders while midfielders Carrie Fleischer (Sr./Tolland) and Taylor MacDonald (Fr./Oak Bluffs, MA) and keeper Megan Gloster (So./Agawam, MA) were named to the second team.
Lambert was named to the all-conference team for the third straight year, also gaining first-team honors as a sophomore in 2004. Fleischer was named to the second team for the second straight year. MacDonald becomes the program’s first freshman all-conference pick since 2001 and only seventh in the 17 years of conference women’s soccer competitive. Gloster is Eastern’s second all-conference pick at keeper in four years.
Read was both the team’s best offensive and defensive player this year, starting all 20 matches for the 12-6-2 Warriors and finishing second on the team in minutes (1,650) and average minutes (82.5).
A third-year letterwinner, Read played the first half of the season as the team’s starting center back, then moved to the front line to bolster a sagging offense. Defensively, she anchored a unit which was second in the conference in least goals allowed (15) and goals-against average (0.73).
Entering the year, Read had managed only two assists. This year, she had seven goals and 15 points leading the team in goals and placing second in points. Four of her goals were game-winners, three coming in succession against Keene State, Johnson & Wales and UMass Boston. She becomes Eastern’s fifth Player-of-the-Year, second in three years and third this decade.
A four-year letterwinner, Lambert appeared in every match for the third time. She started all 20 matches and led the team for the second straight year in minutes (1,711) and average minutes (85.6). She contributed three assists.
Gaudette is a first-year transfer from Division I Central Connecticut State University, where knee problems limited her to one assist in 11 matches off the bench. This past fall, she began the season at midfield but later move to defense. She started 18 of the team’s 20 matches and had six goals, four assists and 16 points. She led the team in points and shared the team lead in assists. Two of her goals were game-winners and came in conference play.
After seeing time in only six games in 2005 due to a knee injury, Gloster bounced back this year to appear in 19 games, with 13 starts. She had nine wins, a 0.84 goals-against average and .816 save percentage in 961 minutes. She shared eight shutouts with Kim Church (Fr./Farmington) and had one full shutout in a 1-0 win at the University of Southern Maine Oct. 21. After splitting her first six decisions, Gloster was 6-0-2 in her final eight regular-season decisions before losing by a 1-0 score in the conference semifinals against Keene State College.
Eastern posted ten shutouts this year, one shy of the program record.
A four-year starter, Fleischer started and appeared in 19 matches and chipped in three goals and two assists. She totaled ten goals and 11 points for 31 points in her career and compiled just under 6,000 minutes.
In the career-ending loss to Keene, Fleischer set a program record with her 76th career start, eclipsing the record formerly held by Jen Ferrari (2001-04). Fleischer also pulled into a three-way tie for first place with her 81st career appearance. She missed only one match in her career.
MacDonald was one of the team’s two everyday starting freshmen, along with defender Christine Lemieux (Fr./South Windsor). MacDonald started 16 of the 19 matches in which she appeared, compiling over 1,400 minutes (fifth-most on the team) and totaling four assists. All of her assists came in a four-game span of wins in early October.
Despite losing three of its top scorers and the starting keeper from a year ago, Eastern matched its 2005 record this season. The Warriors were 6-1 in conference play in the regular season, improving their regular-season LEC record to 34-5-3 over the past six years under head coach Chris D’Ambrosio. In that six-year period, Eastern leads all conference teams in regular-season wins (34) and winning percentage (84.3) and has matched Keene State and Western Connecticut with two conference playoff championships. The Warriors have never finished lower than second in those six years.
