Scholastic Roundup: 2 firsts for 2 ladies

October 14, 2022 Andy Furman

Scholastic Roundup logo

Share this:

It was a first for both.

Kelly Nash earned her first win as a collegiate head coach – and goaltender Annie Abramson earned a victory in her first collegiate start.

And LIU women’s ice hockey team topped host Sacred Heart, 4-3 in the NEWHA conference opener, last Friday in Connecticut.

Carrigan Umpherville, Paige Vreeman and Journey Miller all scored in a four-minute span early in the second period.

Abramson, a freshman from Boise, Idaho was making her first collegiate start. She handled the goaltending duties in place of standout Tindra Holm, who was out as a precaution after leaving last weekend’s second game against Northeastern after one period.

She handled he final two periods against Northeastern in her collegiate debut and recorded 20 saves – including 11 in the third period.

* * *

Nash, the first-year coach, notched her first victory after four defeats to begin her collegiate head coaching career. Those four opening games came against 2022 Frozen Four participants – Minnesota Duluth and Northeastern – the fifth and third-ranked teams in Division I respectively, at the time of this season’s matchups.

After the Sacred Heart victory, Nash, Abramson and Vreeman – first collegiate goal – all received inscribed pucks as mementos.

Megan Bouveur and Alva Johnsson serve as team captains, while Sarah Rourke and Lauren Spino serve as the team’s alternate captains.

LIU returns to action with Friday and Saturday games at Maine

The LIU rowing teams made their program debuts with success on Sunday. Competing at the Head of the Passaic in New Jersey, the women’s 2X and women’s 4+ finished in first-place and the men’s 4+ finished in second place.

The women’s 8+ was uncontested and rounded out the four races in which LIU competed in its debut event.

The victorious women’s 4+ — which included Melanie Campos, Kylee Gross, Leah Bowlby, Kathrine Hansen and Bella Kolstad-Khan – produced a time of 18:17.1 to top The College of New Jersey (18:38.6) and NYU (18:56.5).

The women’s 2x included Emily Hughes and Gross and finished in 18:15 to defeat Passaic River (21:05.1) and SUNY Maritime (22:08.6).

The debuting men’s 4+ team of Shervin Keypour, Aaron Munford, Sean Barry, Daniel Tellerman and Matthew Ciniglio finished in 17:43.9, trailing only TCNJ (16:26.2).

* * *

St. Francis College has moved into its new home – 179 Livingston Street – with no announcement yet as to where their basketball, volleyball and water polo teams will call home. The new building has no basketball court or pool. Pratt, New York Institute of Technology and NYU are some of the possible locations for their “home-away-from-home.”

The men’s basketball team will be playing at the University of Miami, Wednesday, November 23rd and visit the University of South Florida, in Tampa, Friday, November 25th. The entire ’22-’23 schedule has not be announced yet.

Both the men and women’s cross-country teams achieved their best finishes of the young season at the Highlander Challenge hosted by the New Jersey Institute of Technology, last weekend.

The Terriers’ women placed sixth out of 25 teams and the men placed 12th out of 24.

Five of the Terriers’ six women finished in the top 50 out of 186 competitors. Three of those five finished in the top 40, led by Viola Alisch (20:29.0) in 29th place.

Carol Nieves was just five second behind (20:34.0) in 33rd place, followed by Angel Okafor (20:51.0) in 37th place.

For the men, it was also a season-best finish – Lance Hubert paced St. Francis in the 8K run, finishing in 25th place with a 27:08.0 time. Willard Parker was the next Terrier finisher, clocking in at 29:52.0.

* * *

First-year Katherine Thomsen scored five times in leading the Pratt Institute women’s soccer team to a 7-1 win over Lehman, Friday. Siena Sujitno and Kaila Rodriguez each scored a goal as the Cannoneers moved to 6-3.

Thomsen’s five goals in a single game and 20 goals on the season are the most by a Cannoneer since the women’s soccer program was re-started in 2016. The first-year also currently leads Division III in goals scored.

The sixth win also marks the most in a season since 2016.

The men’s squad honored seniors Jack Ketteler and Chatrin Samanchuen on Senior Day before falling to Clarks Summit University, 2-0 Saturday.

* * *

Behind braces by Victor Naci (Bordeaux, France) and Francisco Garcia (Park Slope Collegiate) the St. Joseph’s University men’s soccer team blanked Sarah Lawrence College, 5-0 Friday at Fleming Field. Pablo Mejia rounded out the trio of goal scorers as the Bears earned their first Skyline Conference win of the season. Naci’s Skyline-leading 13 goals places him fifth in Division III in scoring.

* * *

Kevin McCarthy finished first for Brooklyn College in last week’s New Jersey Institute of Technology Highlander Invitational with a time of 35:02.0 good for 136th overall in a pool of 189. Naheen Khan was second for BC and 165th overall with a time of 39:34.0 and Alex Wang rounded-out the top three for BC and 168th overall with a time of 39:47.0 in the 8K race. Seton Hall won the event followed by hist NJIT and Molloy. The Bulldogs will compete in the St. Joseph’s Long Island Invitational at Sunken Meadow Park, Saturday, October 15th.

Brooklyn College women’s soccer team picked up their first win of the season, in a 7-0 shutout of Medgar Evers in CUNYAC play, Saturday. Rachel Gomez tallied twice.

Senior defensive specialist, Alanis Guinada had a match-high nine digs to go along with four service aces as BC’s women’s volleyball team rolled over Lehman – and then defeated Baruch in a CUNY trimatch hosted by Baruch, Saturday.

Sophomore outside hitter, Aleah Rafat had a match-high nine kills while hitting .615. Freshman setter, Amra Mulic, finished with a match-high nine assists to go along with four aces and five digs.

Senior outside hitter, Ashley Fung, made huge contributions offensively and defensively finishing with 11 kills, 16 digs and four blocks. Sophomore outside hitter, Tessa Winkleman, put away a match-high 12 kills and came up with 13 digs for another Brooklyn double-double. Mulic just missed the team’s third double-double, finishing with 16 assists and nine digs.

* * *

A tip of the cap to the volunteers from the men’s and women’s basketball teams as well as the Admission Office at St. Francis College for their assistance in the 34th annual P.O. Christopher Hoban Memorial Five-Mile Run held back on September 18th.

The race celebrates Police Officer Hoban, a 1980 Xaverian High School graduate who was killed in the line of duty, October 18, 1988 during an undercover narcotics operation – buy-and-bust. He was 26 years old.

Andy Furman is a Fox Sports Radio national talk show host. Previously, he was a scholastic sports columnist for the Brooklyn Eagle. He may be reached at: [email protected] Twitter: @AndyFurmanFSR