Sept. 26, 2012
CENTER VALLEY, Pa. – Five more Patriot League student-athletes, including a pair in football, earned weekly honors from the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC), it was announced Tuesday.
Navy led with a pair of selections, as sophomore forward Joseph Greenspan was named the ECAC Offensive Player of the Week in men’s soccer, while sophomore Annie Norah-Beveridge garnered the Female Runner of the Week nod. Lehigh senior linebacker Billy Boyko was honored as the FCS Defensive Player of the Week, while Georgetown junior punter/kicker Matt MacZura captured the Special Teams Player of the Week award. Rounding out the list of five was Army senior outside hitter Ariana Mankus as Volleyball Player of the Week.
Boyko had 14 tackles, a sack and one huge interception that he returned 39 yards for a touchdown to lead No. 13 Lehigh to a 28-26 victory at Liberty on Saturday. The tackle total marked a career high and the interception was a career first, coming in the fourth quarter to give Lehigh a 28-20 lead and serve as the game-winning score. Boyko was named Patriot League Defensive Player of the Week for the first time on Monday, and added a pair of national awards from The Sports Network and College Sports Journal/GameWornUniforms.com.
MacZura hit the game-winning 33-yard field goal with 14 seconds to go to send Georgetown to a 21-20 win at Princeton on Friday evening. He also made kicks of 25 and 26 yards in the first half to go 3-for-3 on the night, and punted six times for a 38.2 average with two inside the 20. MacZura was named Patriot League Special Teams Player of the Week for the second time in his career on Monday.
Greenspan had an incredible week with three goals and a pair of assists for eight points. Both his dishes came Wednesday as Navy upended then-undefeated and No. 20 George Mason 2-1 in double overtime on the road. He saved his best for Saturday’s League-opener against visiting Lafayette, becoming the first Mid in five years to score a hat trick in Navy’s 4-2 victory over the Leopards. Saturday’s victory was Navy’s first over Lafayette since 2001, while Greenspan became the first Navy freshman or sophomore to log three goals in a game since 1990.
Mankus averaged 3.56 kills and 4.44 digs per set while hitting .250 to help the Black Knights to a 2-0 start to Patriot League play, including a thrilling come-from-behind five-set win at defending champion American Friday night. She led all players with 20 kills, including three with no errors in the decisive fifth set, which Army won 15-7. The Black Knights had rallied from two sets down in the contest. Mankus kept delivering Saturday with 12 kills on 31 swings with just one error as the Black Knights collected their 11th straight “Star” against Navy, 3-1. She now sits second in Army history with 1,368 kills, and is well within striking distance of the League’s all-time top 10.
Beveridge claimed the M-F Athletic Female Runner of the Week award for the third time Monday after finishing in 14th place out of 172 runners at the Toledo Inter-Regional Bubble Buster on Friday. Beveridge ran the 4K race in 13:37 to come within seven seconds of a top-10 finish. She helped the Mids place 10th in a 14-team field that included four nationally-ranked opponents.
In all, Patriot League student-athletes have collected 15 ECAC honors this fall over the first three weeks of awards.
For information on the Patriot League’s fall sports, visit the Patriot League website here.