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Monday, Sept. 24, 2007
BARNEY, ODELL ARE LEC WEEKLY HONOREES
They are recognized for their defense in m-soccer and w-volleyball
WILLIMANTIC, Conn. –Senior men’s soccer keeper Jay Barney (Mansfield/E.O. Smith) and sophomore volleyball defensive specialist Lauren Odell (Dover Plains, NY/Dover) have been recognized by the Little East Conference for their play for the week ending Sept. 23.
Barney and Odell were recognized for the first time this year as the Defensive Player-of-the-Week in their respective sports. The weekly honor is the seventh in the four-year career of Barney, a two-time all-conference selection and 2006 LEC Defensive Player-of-the-Year. In his career, Barney had previously been honored four times with the weekly defensive award and twice as the weekly Rookie-of-the-Week in 2004, when he went on to earn the LEC Rookie-of-the-Year award.
The weekly honor is the first in the career of Odell, in her second season in the volleyball program.
In the team’s only match of the week, Barney recorded the 18th full shutout of his career against Western Connecticut State University in a 2-0 home win Saturday. In that match, he made eight saves to lower his goals-against average to 0.78 and improve his save percentage to .864. He ranks second in the conference in both of those categories. This year, Barney has started six of the team’s seven matches with two shutouts and has won four of six decisions.
The men’s soccer team is 4-3-0 overall and has won its first two conference matches for the first time since 1998. At 8-1-2, the Warriors have lost only one of their last 11 regular-season conference matches. Eastern visits Elms College Wednesday before returning home to host 2006 conference playoff champion Keene State College Saturday at 1 p.m. on Youth Day.
Odell averaged 5.1 digs (41 in eight games) and had a reception percentage of .955 (67 attempts with three errors) Saturday in a conference win over UMass Boston and loss to Keene State College. The 5-foot-7 inch Odell received a career-high 42 serves against Keene with a .929 percentage, and was perfect on 25 receptions vs. UMass Boston. She had 23 digs against Keene State, one shy of her career-high.
Odell has appeared in 13 of 15 matches and 40 of 54 games this year. Following the weekend, Odell raised her season reception percentage to a team-high .916 on a team-high 251 attempts. She is second on the team this year in digs (168) and digs per game (4.20), rating sixth in the LEC in the latter category. She ranks first on the team in service aces (21) and aces per game (0.52), ranking seventh in the conference in the latter category.
The two-time defending conference volleyball tournament champion, the Warriors are 4-11, 1-3 in the conference. They play four matches this weekend at the Bates College Invitational.
