College Roundup Belfast’s Mary Reid rescues St. Joseph’s

By John Manley

Mary Reid continues to pace St. Joseph’s of Indiana’s women’s soccer team. The Belfast junior kept the 13th-ranked Lady Pumas from donning an "L" when she scored in the 77th minute to enable St. Joe’s to tie Northern Kentucky, 1-1. Reid then exploded with a hat trick in a 5-0 pasting of Wisconsin-Parkside. The Lady Pumas’ Sara Booth, a sophomore from Belfast, had two assists.

Sonya Maher had a goal as Slippery Rock defeated Kutztown, 2-1. Maher is a senior from Waterford. Irish native Noreen Brennan coaches the Rock, which is 9-7 overall and 5-4 in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference.

South Carolina traveled to Mississippi and displayed a stellar defense that produced two shutouts. The Gamecocks defeated Ole Miss, 4-0, then earned a victory over Mississippi State, 2-0. Coach Sue Kelly’s squad has now tied a program best in overall wins. They are 10-4-1 overall and 4-3 in the Southeastern Conference. Kelly is a Corkwoman.

Denise Lyons’s Keene State team extended their win streak to four and have won 10 of their last 11 games. Keene (15-3) racked up victories over Eastern Connecticut State, 6-1, Smith, 3-1, and Western Connecticut State, 3-0. Lyons is a native of Newcastle West, Co. Limerick.

New Haven prevailed over New Hampshire College, 1-0. Coach Dave Clarke’s Chargers are now 8-4 overall and 4-1 in the New England Collegiate Conference. Clarke is a native of Dublin.

Gary Hamill’s Wingate Bulldogs peeled off victories over Clayton, 4-0, and Gardner-Webb, 5-2. Wingate is 6-7 overall. Coach Hamill, who also handles Wingate’s men, is from Belfast.

Men’s Soccer

Penn State toyed with Bucknell, 7-1, a senior forward Jon McClay, from Whitehead, Co. Antrim, had the most prolific 90 minutes of his career.

McClay scored three goals, the final one coming in the 30th minute. He also earned credit for two assists. The eight points is a personal best. The Nittany Lions followed that romp with a 1-0 victory over Big Ten rival Michigan State. Barry Gorman’s team (11-3-2 overall, 4-1 Big Ten) earned a first-round bye in the conference tournament with the win. Gorman is from Belfast.

Ohio Wesleyan left the pitch with a 1-0 victory over Earlham, thanks to David Pedreschi. The sophomore from Dublin scored the only goal of the match in the 17th minute to earn hero’s laurels. OWU advances to 10-4 on the season and 5-0 in the North Coast Athletic Conference. They clinched at least a share of the conference title with a 3-0 victory over Kenyon.

Fairleigh Dickinson’s Alan Fox scored a goal in a 3-0 triumph over Monmouth. Fox is a senior from Bray, Co. Wicklow. FDU is 7-7-1.

Clemson has remained on track for coach Trevor Adair. The third-ranked Tigers beat UNC-Charlotte, 2-0, and Furman, 2-0, to improve to 15-1. Adair is from Belfast.

New York University hasn’t exactly been a power in the University Athletic Association, but coach Joe Behan has the Violets on the right track. NYU handed 1-0 defeats to both Chicago and Washington University of St. Louis last week to run its winning streak to three games. NYU, whose coach is from Dublin, is 7-8 overall and 3-2 in UAA play.

The Big East seems not to be taking the rejuvenated Providence Friars seriously. Georgetown, ranked 11th, was bruised by the Friars, 2-1. Then it was Notre Dame’s turn to have a 2-1 defeat pinned on. John Costigan, a sophomore from Dublin, assisted on the winning goal in the latter contest. Brian Ainscough, a Dubliner, now aims his Friars for the .500 mark. They are now 7-8 overall and 5-4 in the Big East.

Boston College dropped a home game to Notre Dame, 3-0. Dubliner Ed Kelly’s Eagles fall to 5-8-2.

Dartmouth’s No. 16 ranking is in jeopardy after a 2-1 loss to Cornell. The week began well enough for Fran O’Leary’s Big Green (9-2-1), as they knocked off Hofstra, 2-0. O’Leary is also from Dublin.

Gary Hamill’s Wingate Bulldogs (8-7) split a pair last week. They defeated Presbyterian, 3-2, then lost to Gardner-Webb, 2-1.

Roy Patton’s Vermont crew has hit a rough patch of late. The Catamounts have endured recent losses to Towson State, 2-0 and Delaware, 2-1. Patton is a Belfast native.

Noreen Brennan handles Slippery Rock’s men’s team as well as the women. Her guys went to overtime before losing to Allegheny, 3-2, then defeated Kutztown, 3-1. A loss to West Chester followed and dropped the Rock to 6-9 overall and 3-4 in the PSAC.

Cross-country

Mercyhurst’s Ciaran Brewster finished 52nd in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championship race. The freshman from County Longford covered the course in 38 minutes, 16 seconds and was 48th for purposes of awarding team points. The first man across was Ashland’s Ryan Knight in 34:28.

Iona’s "B" team contested the IC4A University division race at Van Cortlandt Park, finishing eighth among teams. Barry Egan, a freshman from Caher, Co. Tipperary, ran seventh with a time of 25:51 over the 5-mile course. David Brosnan, a senior from Cork, was 86th in 27:49. Towson State’s Paul Bourg won the race in 25:08.

Golf

Clemson’s Michael Hoey appears to have quite a future ahead of him. The Belfast freshman finished tied for sixth place in his first collegiate tournament, the Jerry Pate National Intercollegiate at the Old Overton Golf Club in Birmingham, Ala. Hoey, who is following in the spike marks of Richard Coughlan, shot rounds of 71, 68 and 68 to finish 6-under for the tournament. Hoey’s 207 was only three strokes off UNLV’s Jeremy Anderson and UCLA’s B.J. Schlagenhauf, who tied for medalist honors at 204. The Tigers won the team title by 14 strokes.

The University of Toledo posted an easy win in the Legends of Indiana tournament in Franklin, Ind. The Rockets enjoyed a 25-stroke cushion over Illinois, the runner-up. Toledo’s Tim Rice, a junior from Rosbrien, Co. Limerick, tied for individual honors with D.A. Points of Illinois. Rice shot a 6-under 210 (69-69-72). Teammate Ricky Elliott, a junior from Portrush, Co. Antrim, tied for sixth place at 215 (69-71-75). Toledo’s Alan Murray, a freshman from Dublin, tied for 31st at 224 (78-70-76).

Mississippi State’s women placed ninth of 12 teams in the South Florida-Beacon Woods Invitational in Bayonet, Fla. MSU’s Sue Phillips, a junior from Dublin, tied for 53rd place at 248 (82-83-83).

Tennis

Mississippi State’s Eimear Sloan, a junior from Dublin, advanced to the finals of the Flight C Singles draw at the Yellowjacket/Holiday Inn Midtown North Invitational at Georgia Tech. Sloan’s victims were Indiana’s Karie Schlukebir, 6-3, 6-3, Rice’s Judith Hagedorn, 7-6 (5), 6-2, and Georgia Tech’s Laura Ozolins, 6-2, 6-1. Sloan then lost in the finals to Indiana’s Ann Cerretto, 6-4, 6-4.

Sloan joined Amelie Detriviere in Flight A of Doubles play and they won their first match over Baylor’s Karin Anderson and Katia Kovac, 8-2, before losing to Iowa’s Shera Wiegler and Erin Wolverton, 8-6. The MSU duo recovered in the first consolation round to down Indiana’s Schlukebir and Kelly Blanch, 8-4. Iowa’s Emily Brampton and Natalya Dawaf then defeated Sloan and Detriviere in the consolation quarterfinals, 8-2.