ANTONINI AND FINEGAN TABBED AS A-10 FIELD HOCKEY ROOKIE AND COACH OF THE YEAR
PHILADELPHIA (11/06/03) - In voting conducted among the Conference's field hockey coaches, Saint Joseph's Nicole Antonini was selected as Rookie of the Year and Michelle Finegan of Saint Joseph's was chosen as the 2003 Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year. Richmond's Allie Howard was tabbed as Offensive Player of the Year, while Colleen Bolger of La Salle was named Defensive Player of the Year.
Antonini earns Rookie of the Year laurels after leading Saint Joseph's in goals and points with nine and 21, respectively. The forward from Collegeville, PA, is fourth in the Atlantic 10 in scoring and ranks first among the freshmen. She has two game-winning goals and was named the Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Week for the week of Sept. 15. She is the fourth Hawk to receive the team's Rookie of the Year Award and the first since Brett Dymarczyk in 1999. Antonini was also named to the A-10 All-Conference team.
Finegan earns Coach of the Year honors after leading Saint Joseph's to its third straight Atlantic 10 postseason appearance with a 3-3 Conference record and a 7-10 overall mark. The Hawks won four of their last five games to secure the No. 3 seed in the Atlantic 10 Championship. The 1984 graduate of Delaware, who went 53-59-7 in her first stint at SJU from 1990-95, returned to lead Saint Joseph's after a six-year hiatus and now owns a seven-year record of 60-69-7. The winningest coach in the program's history, Finegan also received A-10 Coach of the Year laurels in 1995 after leading the Hawks to the A-10 regular season and postseason titles that season.
Howard enters this weekend's Atlantic 10 Field Hockey Championship with a league-leading 37 points on 13 goals and 11 assists. This is the third straight year that Richmond boasts the offensive player of the year. Her 13 goals are tops in the league while her 11 assists rank second overall. She also ranks 20th nationally in scoring, 16th nationally assists and had three game-winning goals on the season. The sophomore midfielder from Lancaster, PA, led an offense that outscored Atlantic 10 opponents 23-3.
Bolger anchored a La Salle defense that posted three shutouts on the season and allowed one less goal than La Salle scored despite having 69 less shots and 56 less corners. The junior from Berlin, NJ, posted a 2.61 goals against average along with a .781 save percentage, which ranked fourth in the league.
Joining Antonini on the All-Conference team was senior teammate Amie Schmoltze. Also named to the squad were Howard and Bolger along with Lydia Decembrino, Laura Hur and Michelle La Force of Richmond; Temple's Haley Dervinis, Lindsay Holman and Talia Ruth; Caleen Owens and Kendra Wood of West Chester; Kelly Johnson and Courtney Wood of Rhode Island; Jaime Bawden of Massachusetts; and Sara Camilli of La Salle.
|
