Nov. 14, 2011

CENTER VALLEY, Pa. -- The Patriot League announced its weekly awards for Nov. 7-13 in volleyball and swimming and diving Monday.

The regular season came to a close in women's volleyball, and American, Army, Lehigh and Colgate are headed to the Patriot League Tournament that begins Saturday in Washington, D.C., with the Eagles serving as hosts for the 10th time in 11 seasons. American will take on No. 4 seed Colgate Saturday at 2 p.m., with second-seeded Army battling No. 3 Lehigh at 5 p.m. The championship match is Sunday at 2 p.m.

In swimming and diving, just Colgate and Lehigh were in action last week, and the two schools wound up splitting the awards. The Mountain Hawks performed well at the Princeton Invitational with one school record falling, while both the Raider men and women went 1-1 over the weekend. Action picks up again Thursday with American, Army and Navy opening up a very busy four-day stretch a week before the Thanksgiving holiday.

Patriot League Women's Volleyball Weekly Awards

MOLTEN PLAYER OF THE WEEK
MEGAN LYNCH, HOLY CROSS Jr., OH, Mendham, N.J.
Lynch spearheaded the Crusaders' first 2-0 weekend in Patriot League play since October 2004. She collected 12 kills and 15 digs in Friday's sweep of Bucknell, then added 21 kills and 11 digs and hit .347 in Saturday's victory over Colgate, Holy Cross' first against the Raiders since November 2004. Lynch averaged 4.71 kills and 3.71 digs per set while hitting .267 for the weekend. She ends the season with 402 kills, second in school annals behind her own record of 442 set last year. She moved up to second all-time at Holy Cross with 1,218 kills and is now one of two Crusaders ever with 1,000 kills and 900 digs.

MOLTEN ROOKIE OF THE WEEK
SARA RISHELL, AMERICAN Fr., OH/MB, Hagerstown, Md.
Rishell continued her dominating play during League action, helping the Eagles to a 2-0 weekend and finish the League slate with a 13-1 mark entering next weekend's tournament. She tallied 12 kills with just one error and hit an incredible .688 in Friday's sweep of Lehigh, clinching the tournament's No. 1 seed for the Eagles for the 10th time in 11 tries. She added another 12 kills on 22 swings and hit .364 in Saturday's 3-1 win over Lafayette. She hit .500 for the week, averaged 3.43 kills per set and totaled four blocks, including three in Friday's win.

HONORABLE MENTIONS
REBECCA HEATH, AMERICAN Sr., OH, Naperville, Ill.
Heath hit .318 over the weekend and averaged 3.14 kills and 1.71 digs per set as American went 2-0 and finished with a 13-1 record in League play to sew up the No. 1 seed. She had 13 kills and eight digs in Saturday's four-set win against Lafayette.

DIANE SEELY, COLGATE Fr., MB, Menlo Park, Calif.
Seely had 12 kills with no errors on 21 attempts to hit .571 in Colgate's five-set loss at Army Friday night. She hit .424 for the weekend.

CAMISSA BEGHOU, LAFAYETTE Fr., RSH, Winnetka, Ill.
Beghou averaged 2.44 kills per set and hit .312 for the Leopards during a 1-1 weekend that included a five-set win at Navy.

ARIANA MANKUS, ARMY Jr., OH, Lisle, Ill.
Mankus had 21 kills and 17 digs in Army's five-set win Friday over Colgate, wrapping up the second seed in next weekend's League Tournament for the Black Knights. She hit .298 for the weekend and averaged 4.12 kills and 3.62 digs per set.

KEBAH EDOHO, BUCKNELL Jr., MH, Odenton, Md.
Edoho hit .379 with 13 kills on 29 swings with just two errors for the Bison in match against Holy Cross and Army.

Patriot League Swimming and Diving Weekly Awards

MALE SWIMMER OF THE WEEK
DEMETRI KAREDIS, LEHIGH So., Orefield, Pa.
Karedis captured a pair of individual wins as Lehigh competed in the Princeton Invitational Friday and Saturday in Princeton, N.J. He took the title in the 50-yard free, posting a school-record time of 20.33, which was just .04 seconds short of an NCAA B-cut qualification. He also won the 100 free in 45.91 and was part of Lehigh's winning 200 free relay, in which we swam the first leg.

FEMALE SWIMMER OF THE WEEK
MEGAN JEX, COLGATE So., Carmel, Ind.
Jex captured her second and third victories of the season, helping the Raiders post a 170-70 victory against visiting Niagara Sunday at Lineberry Natatorium in Hamilton, N.Y. The sophomore from Carmel, Ind., took first in the 200 back with a 2:10.62 clocking and added a first-place showing in the 200 breast in 2:28.56. She won the 200 breast by over four seconds and took first in the 200 back by six ticks.

MALE DIVER OF THE WEEK
CONNOR STYLES, LEHIGH Sr., Chappaqua, N.Y.
Styles became the second Patriot League diver in as many weeks to qualify for NCAA Zones, posting a score of 301.75 from the one-meter board to take fourth at the Princeton Invitational. He also competed in the three-meter event with a 274.40 to take sixth.

FEMALE DIVER OF THE WEEK
KIM PILKA, COLGATE Jr., Great Falls, Va.
Pilka swept the one- and three-meter diving events Sunday for Colgate, helping give the Raiders a 170-70 victory over Niagara in their first home meet of the year. She collected 249.89 points in the one-meter competition and scored 246.23 from the three-meter board. It's her second and third wins of the year, as she also won the one-meter dive in the season opener at Lehigh.

HONORABLE MENTIONS
ALISSA LEUNG, LEHIGH Fr., Garden City, N.Y.
Leung competed in three individual events and four relays at the Princeton.