Sports Hotline
860-465-5756
Monday, October 2, 2006
THREE SELECTED LITTLE EAST AWARD-WINNERS
Dougherty, Capomolla in volleyball and Fantl in men’s soccer are cited
WILLIMANTIC, Conn. – Volleyball players Priscilla Dougherty (Jr./Island Park, NY) and Marianna Capomolla (Sr./Stamford) and Maxim Fantl (Fr./West Hartford) of the men’s soccer team have been recognized with weekly awards by the Little East Conference, announced Monday.
Dougherty was named Offensive Player-of-the-Week and Capomolla Defensive Player-of-the-Week while Fantl was recognized as the Rookie-of-the-Week. Dougherty is a third-year setter, Capomolla a third-year defensive specialist and Fantl a first-year midfielder. It is the first weekly honor in the careers of Dougherty and Fantl and the third for Capomolla, who repeats the honor from a week ago.
Dougherty becomes the third straight Eastern player in four weeks to garner Offensive Player-of-the-Week accolades. Middle blocker Emma Sousa (Jr./Coventry), the current conference leader in kills, kills per game and points, had earned the award each of the last two weeks.
Dougherty was named MVP when Eastern won the Johnson & Wales Invitational Friday and Saturday. In four matches (14 games) she collected 146 assists in 14 games for a 10.43 average, added 23 kills and a .276 attack percentage, served 68 balls with only three errors (.956) and was charged with only four ball-handling errors despite hundreds of touches during a 5-0 week. Dougherty leads the conference in assists (523) and is third with a 7.58 average. She is sixth all-time at Eastern with 1,323 assists, 653 shy of sharing fifth place with Beth Hackett.
After sharing setting duties with three teammates last year, Dougherty is the team’s only experienced setter at this point, due to the season-ending injury to Jen Braswell (Jr./Wilton) Sept. 20.
At Johnson & Wales, Capomolla had 84 digs in 14 games. (6.0 per game) Capomolla also received a team-high 106 serves, making only seven errors for a .934 percentage. Capomolla leads the conference in digs (307) this year and is fourth with an average of 4.65. She is also ranked second in the conference with 41 service aces and is first on the team with 462 reception attempts and second with a .946 percentage.
In only her third year, Capomolla is ranked sixth all-time at Eastern in digs, 13 shy of sharing fifth place with Karen Ann Sweet. She was last year’s conference Defensive Player-of-the-Week.
A winner of 11 of its last 12 matches, Eastern (14-5) visits former five-time conference regular-season and playoff champion Western Connecticut State University Tuesday at 6 p.m. Eastern, the conference leader with a 4-0 record, won last year’s tournament title after sharing the regular-season championship with Plymouth State University.
Until this year, no Eastern men’s soccer field player had ever been named Rookie-of-the-Week through the first six years of the award (keeper Jay Barney received the award twice in 2004). Fantl becomes the program’s second Rookie-of-the-Week in as many weeks, following wing back Dean Perri (Fr./Commack, NY) a week ago. Fantl came off the bench last Wednesday to score his second and third goals of the year less than two minutes apart in a 6-0 win over visiting Elms College. Fantl has appeared in all ten matches for the 3-4-3 Warriors, averaging just under 50 minutes per game and sharing the team lead with three goals and seven points. He has started six matches.
Men’s soccer visits Roger Williams University Wednesday at 4 p.m.
