February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
By John Manley
Mary Reid shared Great Lakes Valley Conference Player of the Week honors in
women’s soccer on the strength of her four goals in two victories by St. Joseph’s of Indiana. The senior forward from Belfast booted home three tallies in a 4-0 win over Kentucky Wesleyan. She settled for one goal and assisted on another in a 3-0 defeat of Bellarmine. Reid is St. Joe’s high scorer with 21 points from nine goals and three assists. She is the all-time leading scorer for the Pumas with 156 points. St. Joe’s improved to 7-4 overall with the victories and 3-3 in the GLVC.
After a pair of losses, Denise Lyons quickly righted her Keene State team. Keene reeled off victories over Plymouth State, 2-0, Bridgewater State, 4-0, and Worcester State, 2-0, then left the pitch in a scoreless tie with Rhode Island College. Coach Lyons, a native of Newcastle West, Co. Limerick, has her team at 8-3-2.
Men’s soccer
Jason Allen converted a penalty kick to obtain a 1-0 overtime triumph for Vermont over New Hampshire. Allen is a sophomore from Belfast. Roy Patton’s Catamounts are 7-4-1 overall and 2-2-0 in the America East.
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New Hampshire College’s Paul Cleary booted home the winning goal in a 3-1 victory over Assumption. The Waterford senior found the net in the 54th minute, with the contest knotted at one. The Penmen are 6-2-1.
Fairfield’s Bryan Harkin set in motion the ball movement that culminated in the winning goal in the Stags’ 2-1 win over Niagara. Harkin is a freshman from Derry. Fairfield is 6-5-1 overall and 5-2-0 in the MAAC.
Penn State fell to fifth in the Division I rankings after its loss to Indiana, but the Nittany Lions roared back with three wins last week. Cleveland State and Northwestern were defeated by identical 1-0 scores. Wisconsin then took Barry Gorman’s boys into overtime, but Penn State prevailed, 2-1. Penn State is now 11-1-0 overall and 2-1-0 in Big Ten play. Gorman is a Belfast native.
Fran O’Leary finally acquired that elusive first victory of the season. First, the Big Green traveled to California, where they tied California, 2-all, before losing to Stanford, 4-0. The Dubliner’s charges returned to the East Coast, where they got the best of Ivy League rival Yale, 3-2. Dartmouth is 1-4-2.
Joe Behan’s New York University crew hung up another shutout. Last week’s victim was Case Western Reserve, 2-0. NYU is 7-2-1 overall and 2-0 versus University Athletic Association rivals. Behan is a Dubliner.
Fairleigh Dickinson-Madison, coached by Belfast native Tom McLoughlin, took Caldwell to overtime, before prevailing, 2-1. FDU is 4-5-0.
It wasn’t a good week for Providence coach Brian Ainscough. The Dubliner’s Friars lost to both Brown, 2-1, and Notre Dame, 4-0. Providence is now 4-6-1 overall and 3-4 in the Big East.
Boston College and Ed Kelly fared no better. They suffered a 2-1 loss to West Virginia to fall to 3-5-1 overall and 1-5 in the Big East. Coach Kelly also came out of Dublin.
Tennis
Harvard ventured southwest to Tulsa for the Hurricane Tennis Invitational, where they experienced mixed results. Co-captain Joe Green came out of his three singles matches in the number one slot with a win and two losses. He began with a 7-6, 6-3 loss to Southern Methodist’s Genius Chidzikwe. Green recovered to post a 7-6, 6-4 victory over Tulsa’s Dane McGregor the next day. He then lost to Texas Christian’s Trace Fielding, 2-6, 6-4, 6-1. Green, a senior from Dublin, didn’t fare any better in the doubles brackets. Green and partner Andrew Styperek began with an 8-6 triumph over SMU’S Chidzikwe and Gerardo Mulas, but then lost to both Tulsa’s Sean Monk and Shri Sudhaker, 8-4, and TCU’s Fielding and P. Koula, 8-3.
Rice’s Robert Collins defeated Mississippi’s Frederik Mellin, 6-4, 7-6, and Kansas’ Rodrigo Echagaray, 7-5, 3-6, 7-6, to reach the quarterfinal round of the Thunderbirds Invitational in Tempe, Ariz. Perhaps that last, long contest took its toll on the Dublin senior. He then lost to top seeded Peter Luczak of Fresno State, 6-1, 6-4. With doubles partner Prakash Venkataraman at his side, Collins teamed to defeat Mississippi State’s Jerome Le Belicard and Rene Combette, 8-6, followed by an 8-6 triumph over Luczak and Andy Scortenau. The Rice duo lost in the semis to Arizona State’s Ed Carter and Alex Osterrieth, 8-5.
Cross-country
Western Kentucky’s women’s team won the team trophy in the Furman Invitational in Greenville, S.C. Senior Valerie Lynch from Cork took second place in the 5,000-meter race with a time of 17 minutes, 55 seconds. East Tennessee State’s Catherine Berry was the winner in 17:27. Coming in later for Western Kentucky were freshman Olga Cronin, eighth in 18:38, sophomore Terri Hennessy, 15th in 18:51, junior Lisa Cronin, 18th in 18:57, and freshman Caroline Daly, 21st in 19:03. They, too, are all from Cork.
Villanova’s women dominated the LaSalle Invitational in Philadelphia. Junior Geraldine McCarthy, from Listowel, Co. Kerry was eighth with a time of 19:18.42. The winning time was posted by teammate Carmen Douma in 17:32.91.
Fairleigh Dickinson’s Aidan Walsh ran eighth in the Metropolitan Championships at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx. The sophomore from Dublin covered five miles in 26:20. Teammate Steve Ondieki won the race in 25:16.
South Alabama’s Brian Murray, a junior from Nenagh, Co. Tipperary, finished 22nd in the Auburn Invitational in Auburn, Ala. Murray posted a time of 25:16.36 in the 8,000-meter run that attracted 269 runners. His teammate David Kimani broke the tape in 24:16.59. South Alabama finished fifth among teams.