The Alternative Press

Megan Leonhard (Summit, Jr.) scored three goals to shepherd Trinity (Conn.) into the NCAA Division 3 Women’s Lacrosse Tournament final four. She scored once in Saturday’s 17-6 defeat of Buffalo State. She also got credit for causing three Buffalo turnovers, retrieving three ground balls and controlling one draw. Leonhard had two tallies in Sunday’s 7-5 win over Colby, along with three ground balls, three draw controls and one forced turnover. Trinity (19-1) now awaits Cortland State, whom they will face on Saturday at 4 pm in Montclair.

Hillary Densen (Summit, Jr.) scored a goal and picked up an assist as the season ended for Amherst with an 8-7 loss to The College of New Jersey in NCAA Division 3 Tournament action in Cortland, N.Y. on Saturday. Teammate Claire Bennett (Westfield, Sr.) earned credit for three draw controls, three ground balls and two caused turnovers. Amherst finished with a 13-5 record.

Unranked Penn took no. 6 Loyola (Md.) to the limit, but ultimately came out on the short end of a 10-9 verdict in NCAA Division 1 Tournament play in Baltimore on Sunday. Leah McBride (Madison, Fr.) caused one Loyola turnover and picked up one ground ball for the Quakers (9-8).

MEN’S LACROSSE

Colgate, ranked ninth in Division 1, upset top-ranked Massachusetts, 13-11, in Amherst, Mass. on Saturday in first-round NCAA Division 1 Tournament action. Bobby Lawrence (Summit, Soph.), who started at defense for Colgate, picked up two ground balls and caused one UMass turnover. John Donnally (Madison, Sr.) also saw action for Colgate. Next for Colgate (14-3) is Duke in Philadelphia on Sunday.  

Third-ranked Duke advanced with a 12-9 win over no. 16 Syracuse in Durham, N.C. Tommy Patterson (Chatham, Jr.) was on the field for the winning Blue Devils (14-4) and got credit for one ground ball.

Johns Hopkins, ranked seventh in Division 1, got past Stony Brook, 19-9, in Baltimore on Sunday. Rob Guida (Chatham, Soph.) scored one goal, assisted on another and lifted two ground balls for the Blue Jays (12-3). Hopkins moves on to tackle Maryland in Annapolis, Md. on Saturday.

North Carolina was upset, 16-14, by Denver in Chapel Hill, N.C. on Saturday. The collegiate career of Jack McBride (Madison, Grad.) finally came to an end. He assisted on one goal in this game that saw the Tar Heels finish with an 11-6 record.

Union College advanced in the NCAA Division 3 Tournament with a 10-4 win over Bowdoin on Saturday in Schenectady, N.Y. Joe Cordrey (Summit, Jr.) got credit for one ground ball for the winning Dutchmen (13-4), who are slated to next visit Cortland State on Wednesday.

TRACK & FIELD

Colgate’s Christopher Johnson (Murray Hill, Jr.) got fourth place in the men’s 1,500 meters at the IC4A meet in Princeton. He came in a 3:47.74 in a race won by Boston University’s Rich Peters in 3:43.28.

Cornell’s Erin Rossi (Scotch Plains, Sr.) took eighth place in the women’s hammer throw at the ECAC meet in Princeton. Her best throw (her third of six attempts) traveled 54.37 meters. Best of the 20-women field was Liberty’s Melinda Bendik, who got off a throw of 61.35.

TENNIS

The College of New Jersey’s women’s team got bounced out of the NCAA Division 3 Tournament on Sunday by Skidmore, 5-4, in Amherst, Mass. TCNJ breezed past Castleton State, 5-0, in Friday’s first round. Deborah Wu (Westfield, Fr.) scored a victory, 6-0, 6-0, at fifth singles over Lauren Fedorka. She also teamed with Alex Bologno to defeat Olga McIntyre and Felicia West, 8-0, at third doubles. The tandem of Allison Tierney (Berkeley Heights, Jr.) and Karisse Bendijo took out Kate Bucci and Michelle Podnecky, 8-0, at first doubles. Tierney’s match with Bucci at second singles went unfinished when the Lions clinched on another court.

The showdown with Skidmore found both Tierney and Wu victorious in singles play. Tierney knocked off Nataly Mendoza, 3-6, 7-5, 6-4, in the third spot, while Wu handled Robyn Baird, 6-3, 6-2, at the sixth spot. Wu was inactive during doubles play, but Tierney and Bendijo suffered an 8-6 loss to Mendoza and Lee Ford at first doubles.   

SOFTBALL

Massachusetts won the Atlantic 10 Tournament in St. Louis with victories over George Washington, 5-2, Fordham, 2-0, and GW, again, 3-2. Cyndil Matthew (Westfield, Jr.) went 5-for-10 at the plate, including a 3-for-4 game in the finale. She had a triple in that game, as well as two singles. She also stole a base in each of the three games. UMass (38-11) hooks up with DePaul in Columbia, Mo. on Friday in first-round NCAA Tournament play.

Kait Fiore (Millburn, Sr.) had a pair of 2-for-3 games at the plate as Denison split its first two games in the NCAA Division 3 Tournament. The Big Red opened with a 6-5 loss to Alma on Thursday, in which Fiore, a Millburn High grad, slapped a pair of singles. She then doubled, singled and scored a run in Friday’s 5-4 win over Penn State-Behrend. She drew a base on balls, but was held hitless in Saturday’s 1-0 loss to the University of Chicago, which spelled the end for Denison in this double-elimination tournament, which was played in Alma, Mich. Fiore finished the season with a .313 batting average, the second highest on the squad. She drove in 10 runs and was successful on five of six stolen base attempts for Denison (28-19).

Montclair State is on its way to the NCAA Division 3 Championship Tournament in Salem, Va. this weekend. The Red Hawks swept four games in Union this past weekend, defeating Rowan (twice), Baruch and The College of New Jersey. Heather Bergman (Berkeley Heights, Jr.) was behind the plate for Montclair and, although she went hitless with the bat, she called three shutouts. Only Rowan in the third of the four games, was able to score any runs (2). First up for Montclair in Virginia is Plattsburgh State on Friday.

Notre Dame made it to the championship game of the Big East Tournament in South Bend, Ind. on Saturday, when they lost to Louisville, 4-3, in eight innings. The Fighting Irish won the opening game, 5-0, over Rutgers on Thursday. Alexa Maldonado (Short Hills, Sr.) scored the first and winning run for Notre Dame in the first inning. After she led off with a bunt single, she moved to second base on a sacrifice bunt, advanced to third base on an outfield single and scored on a sacrifice fly. Notre Dame (38-14) opens the NCAA Division 1 Tournament in Tucson, Ariz. on Friday against Hawaii.

BASEBALL

Northeastern teed off on visiting Old Dominion over the weekend, sweeping a 3-game series from the Virginians by scores of 13-3, 6-4 and 14-1. Rob Fonseca (Madison, Fr.) smashed a 3-run home run in the first of those games and then blasted a first-inning grand slam in the third game. He went 2-for-4 in that latter game, with five runs batted in. He now has seven dingers this season. Teammate John Puttress (New Providence, Jr.) had a perfect 3-for-3 day at the plate on Sunday, legging out his ninth double of the season, along with two singles and a walk. He scored twice and had a run batted in. Northeastern is now 21-27.

Jonny Rio (Maplewood, Jr.) had a 4-for-5 game at the plate, rapping three singles and a double, as Rensselaer Poly lost a Liberty League Tournament game, 11-7, to St. Lawrence in Canton, N.Y. on Friday. RPI won the opening game, 7-6, over Skidmore, but then lost to St. Lawrence, followed by an 8-3 loss to Skidmore. Rio had a 6-for-14 tournament, with three runs scored, two stolen bases and one run driven in. Teammate Kyle Kopacz (Chatham, Sr.) saw action behind the plate for RPI (23-20) in the first two games. He went 1-for-4 with the bat and drew a walk.  

Steve Marino (Westfield, Soph.) pitched an effective seven innings, but lacked enough offensive support as Williams lost, 2-1, to Bowdoin on Saturday in a New England Small College Athletic Conference Tournament game in Hartford, Conn. Marino hurled seven innings, allowed two earned runs on seven hits, struck out four batters and walked four. The loss eliminated Williams (17-21) from the NESCAC conclave and left Marino with a 4-4 record for the season.

Frank Schwindel (Livingston, Soph.) knocked out a pair of singles from five at-bats as St. John’s tamed Louisville, 6-2, in a Saturday road game. The first baseman out of Livingston High scored one of the Red Storm’s runs. St. John’s lost the two other games in the series and are 32-19.