Sports

Scholastic Roundup: This bear got his first

March 15, 2024 Andy Furman

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A first for John Downey.

The St. Joseph’s University, Brooklyn baseball team picked up their first win of the season last week, and it was a first under the direction of head coach John Downey.

The Bears topped Lehman College, 11-2 under the lights, Thursday evening on Staten Island.
Brian Sanchez and Carmine Carbone each went 3-for-5 at the plate with the latter driving in a trio of runs.

After Lehman cut their deficit to one, the Bears broke the game open in the bottom of the seventh. A bases-loaded walk and Miguel Toribio’s (Williamsburg Prep) two-run RBI double, gave SJBK a 6-4 advantage they didn’t surrender.

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Arianna Heinsch, a senior softball performer for St. Joseph’s University, Brooklyn, formally eclipsed the 100-hit plateau while the Lady Bears were participating in the Gene Cusic Collegiate Classic, Fort Myers, Fla. The locals dropped games to Greenville University and the Rochester Institute of Technology earlier this week in their second day at the Classic.

As for Heinsch, the Fontbonne Hall Academy grad is a 2021 Bears Scholar-Athlete Team member; an All-Skyline First Team (2022); and All-Skyline Second Team (2023).

As a junior, she produced as team-leading 43 hits, 32 runs and a .468 on-base percentage. She ranked second in batting (.394) and slugging (.541). She concluded the season on a seven-game hit streak with three-for-three contests against Yeshiva and Sarah Lawrence.

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Brooklyn College freshman outside hitter, Aaron Siu, has been named CUNYAC Men’s Volleyball Rookie of the Week for the fifth time this season. Siu earned his latest honor in a CUNYAC split on the week for the Bulldogs.

Siu averaged a double-double with 10.5 kills and 14 digs. He put away a team-high 14 kills and came up 17 digs at Lehman last week. In Brooklyn’s conference sweep of CCNY, he finished with 17 kills while hitting .286 and came up with 11 digs. Siu leads the conference in kills and digs. He ranks second in service aces.

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Brooklyn College’s men’s tennis team was picked to finish second in this year’s preseason conference coaches’ polls. Baruch was picked to repeat as conference champs, while the Bulldogs edged out Hunter for the runner-up slot. John Jay was picked to finish fourth followed by Lehman and York.

The player to watch — junior Ryan Sham. Finishing with a 6-4 overall record at top-flight singles including 3-1 in the conference, Sham, is primed for his third straight season as the No. 1 slot in both singles and doubles this season.
The Brooklyn Tech High School grad finished last season with a 13-10 record. As an Engineer, he went 21-2 in only two seasons of PSAL play due to the pandemic. He was Tech’s captain as a senior.

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LIU women’s basketball team fell to FDU 71-59 this week in the quarterfinals of the Northeast Conference tournament. In their final collegiate game, Ashley Austin scored 15 points while shooting 50 percent from the floor and tallying a team-high five assists; Samantha Bailey led LIU in rebounds with seven.
The women finished 8-22 overall and 5-11 in conference play.

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The LIU men fell to Merrimack, 72-66 in the NEC first round last week. Andre Washington and Tai Strickland each scored team-highs 18 in their final collegiate games.
Overall, the men finished 7-22 and 6-10 in NEC play.

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Anthony D’Alesio has secured his spot in the NCAA Wrestling Championships, becoming the first wrestler in LIU history to achieve this milestone since the school’s Division I inception.
D’Alesio defeated nationally ranked Maximus Hale of UPenn with a scored of 4-2 in the EIWA Championships, securing the final NCAA qualifying spot in the 184-pound weight class.

With a season record of 19-12, D’Alesio, a junior, aims to achieve the 20-win mark as he heads to Kansas City, Mo., for round one of the NCAA Wrestling Championships, March 21st.

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The LIU acrobatics and tumbling team hosted nationally rankled Baylor in its first-ever home meet in program history.
The Sharks, led by first-year head coach Shelby Armstrong, set a new program record with 242.675 points as they took on the Bears in the Pratt Recreation Center.

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Two LIU Women’s Hockey players have been honored by the NEWHA for their outstanding performances, with Jeannie Wallner and Tindra Holm also earning national recognition.

Wallner, a junior, was named NEWHA Player of the Month for February and was additionally recognized as National Co-Player of the Month.
During the month, Wallner tallied 14 points, scoring nine goals and providing five assists. A notable highlight was her first career hat trick against Saint Michael’s.
Liu remained undefeated with nine wins in February, and Wallner contributed significantly with game-winning goals in five of those games.

Emma Mortl was named NEWHA’s Defensive Player of the Month in recognition of her exceptional performance. A sophomore from Graz, Styria, Austria, she boasted a +10 rating for the month, the third highest in the conference. She did not commit a single penalty during this stretch.
She also tallied five assists in February, the second most by a defender in the NEWHA.

Tindra Holm was honored as the runner-up for goalie by the Hockey Commissioners Association. Earlier in the season, Holm received the NEWHA Goaltender of the Year award and was also acknowledged as a semifinalist for the 2024 National Women’s Goalie of the Year.

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Pratt Institute’s men’s tennis team dropped their first match of the spring portion of their 2023-24 campaign falling top Yeshiva University, 7-2, last week. Three of the matches went to a third set as the Cannoneers dropped to 2-1 on the season.

The men’s volleyball team couldn’t extend their two-match winning streak falling to Lehman College in straight sets (25-21, 25-13, 25-23) last week at the APEX Gym.

Jason Raymond paced the Cannoneer attack with seven kills and added four digs and two blocks on the defensive end. Joji Kawamura chipped in with five kills on a .222 hitting effort and brought up six digs. Devaun Longley and Max Wang added a trio of kills each, Longley hitting .333 and Wang bumping up a team-high eight digs.

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