| Eagles teams racking up Patriot League championships BY MIKE UNGER
Photo by Anthony Wilson
Garth Juckem |
The road to Patriot League dominance leads to AU’s doorstep. In one extraordinary weekend earlier this month, the volleyball team and men’s soccer team clinched regular season league crowns while the field hockey team wrapped up its third consecutive conference tournament title. The winning began Nov. 5 when the soccer team blanked Army 3-0 at Reeves Field to secure its second regular season Patriot League championship. Junior midfielder Garth Juckem scored two goals and junior Larry Mark added another to lift the Eagles on a day when the team honored its two departing seniors, Gordon Templeman and Coco Del Rio, before the game. After clinching the regular season crown, the team advanced to the finals in the Patriot League Tournament last Friday with a 1-0 victory over Colgate but lost by the same score in the title game against Lafayette on Sunday.
Photo by John Mulcahy
Rubena Sukaj |
Later in the evening on the fateful fifth, the volleyball team swept aside Army to win its fifth-straight regular season Patriot League crown. The victory was particularly sweet as the Eagles avenged an earlier loss to the Black Knights, the first and only time in its history that AU suffered a defeat at the hands of a league opponent. Freshman Rubena Sukaj led AU in kills and was named Baden Patriot League Rookie of the Week. Her play, along with that of senior star Cutrina Biddulph, was key, Coach Barry Goldberg said. “Our setters played fantastic, and our seniors stepped up big time,” he said. The Eagles now are preparing for the Patriot League Tournament, which begins Friday at Bender Arena. Just one day after the soccer and volleyball teams took care of business, the field hockey team defeated Holy Cross 4-2 at Jacobs Recreation Complex to win its third Patriot League Tournament in a row. Denise Infante, a second team All-Patriot League selection this year, put the Eagles up 4-0 when she scored her second goal of the game in the second half. Infante was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player for the second straight year.
Photo by Larry French
Denise Infante |
Coach Steve Jennings, the league’s Coach of the Year, was pleased with his team’s effort. “I thought we played a solid game,” he said. “We put them under a lot of pressure from start to finish, forcing them to play reactive. We were able to get many good scoring opportunities.” But the team was hardly satisfied with just winning another league championship. “This year our sights have been set a little above the Patriot League Tournament,” Jennings said. “We’ve been thinking about this season nationally almost the entire season.” On Sunday, the team lost 3-0 to top-ranked Maryland in the second round of the NCAA tournament. Men’s basketball game vs. Loyola to be televised The men’s basketball team will travel north on I-95 Nov. 29 to Baltimore where it will take on Loyola in a game that will be televised by Comcast SportsNet. The game is the first of a home and home contract with the Greyhounds, who are coached by former University of Maryland assistant Jimmy Patsos. The Eagles open the season Saturday in Seattle against the University of Washington, which was a No. 1 seed in last season’s NCAA Tournament. |
