Oct. 26, 2011
CENTER VALLEY, Pa. -- Patriot Leaguers were at it again Tuesday, as five student-athletes were recognized with either national or regional honors for their performances last week.
American sophomore Juliana Crum, who was honored with her first Molten Player of the Week award of the season from the League Monday, added the National Player of the Week award Tuesday from CVU.com. She was joined by four student-athletes who were recognized by the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC), with Bucknell leading the way with a pair of honorees. Junior goalkeeper Sandita McDermott was named ECAC Women's Soccer Defensive Player of the Week, while sophomore goalkeeper Erica Perrine was named ECAC Defensive Player of the Week in field hockey.
Rounding out the list are Navy freshman Morgan Dankanich, who completed the League's sweep of the ECAC Women's Soccer awards with the Offensive Player of the Week nod, and Colgate junior Patrick Letourneau, who was named ECAC Defensive Player of the Week in men's soccer.
Crum was stellar during a 3-0 week for the Eagles, including two more League wins to stay on top of the standings. After recording 14 kills with only one error and hitting .565 against Howard in a 3-0 win, she had 17 kills on 30 swings with just one error in a four-set win at Colgate and added 10 kills and hit .444 in a sweep at Bucknell. She averaged 4.10 kills and 2.60 digs per set and hit .521 for the week with just four errors on 71 attempts. She's the first Patriot Leaguer honored by the website since Ariana Mankus of Army was named National Freshman of the Year in 2009, and the first to earn a weekly honor from the site since Army's Amanda Rowell in the same season.
McDermott put together her best weekend of the year and perhaps her career, stopping eight shots in Friday's 1-0 shutout of defending League champion Lehigh and blocking nine in Sunday's 2-1 overtime win over Lafayette. Four of her eight saves against the Mountain Hawks were diving stops to help lift the Bison to the crucial victory. In Sunday's matchup with the Leopards, McDermott made eight stops in the first half and allowed just one goal to keep her team in the game. Her performances helped lift the Bison into a winner-take-all match Saturday at home against Navy with the last bid to the Patriot League Women's Soccer Tournament at stake.
Perrine held up exceptionally well under a barrage of shots to lead Bucknell to a historic 3-1 win over American on Saturday. It was Bucknell's first win over the Eagles since 2001, snapped an 11-game skid against American and gave the Bison their 300th all-time victory. Perrine made a career-high 11 saves and tallied a .917 save percentage while giving up just one first-half goal. She kept Bucknell in the game in the first half with seven saves as the score was tied 1-1 at intermission, and made four saves in the second half as Bucknell took a 2-1 lead early in the period and held the one-goal advantage for over 26 minutes. Perrine recorded a career-high in saves for the second straight game after making nine stops against Towson last Sunday. She claims the Goalkeeper of the Week award for the first time.
Navy went 3-0 last week, and Dankanich scored all three game-winning goals, including each in a pair of critical League victories over the weekend to put the Mids in position for a bid to the League Tournament. After scoring her team's first goal in Monday's 5-0 whitewash of South Carolina State, she tallied the game-winner in the 88th minute of Navy's 3-2 come-from-behind victory over rival Army Friday night. She closed out the weekend by tallying the Mids' first goal and igniting the offense to a 3-0 win over Holy Cross Sunday afternoon. Dankanich has jumped into a tie for the team lead with four goals.
Letourneau was instrumental in Colgate's defense pitching a shutout for nearly 110 minutes and enabling the Raiders to escape from Easton, Pa., with a 1-0 double-overtime win against Lafayette Saturday night. The junior helped Colgate hold Lafayette to eight shots in the contest, including five on goal. He also tallied a goal earlier in the week as the Raiders settled for a 1-1 draw with Binghamton in non-League action.