Spring Athletes Earn A Host Of ECAC Honors

MADISON, N.J. - A total of 14 Landmark Conference spring sport student-athletes earned spots on ECAC All-Star Teams. The Landmark placed five recipients on both the baseball and softball teams to go along with three women's lacrosse honorees and one men's lacrosse selection.

In softball all five players were picked as first-team selections in the South Region. Beth Paly and Maria DeBonis from Moravian College, Mia Collarini and Annie Zeleniak from the University of Scranton and Rachel Nagy from Juniata College were all honored.

On the baseball diamond Dan Kauffman and Jay Enoch of Juniata were first-team choices in the South Region and teammate Adam Spadafora was a second-team pick. The Catholic University of America placed Joe Maca and Tommy Little on the second team. Kauffman was also selected as the South Region Player of the Year.

In women's lacrosse Drew University's Stacie Brown was picked as the Rookie of the Year while also earning first-team status. She was joined by Catholic's Kate Robinson and Caitlin O'Neil.

Finally in men's lacrosse Drew's Michael DeGiovanni was the lone Landmark representative as he claimed first-team honors in the South Region.

Paly, who was named the 2008 Landmark Conference Player of the Year and a First Team Landmark All-Conference honoree, completed her career tied for fourth in school history with 190 hits and third in games played with 171.

DeBonis, who was named the 2008 Landmark Conference Pitcher of the Year as well as earning spots on the Landmark All-Conference First Team as a pitcher and as a designated player, also had 32 hits with 26 runs, a team high 29 RBIs, eight doubles, a triple, a team leading six home runs, ten walks and a .348 average.

Collarini, a first-team all-Landmark Conference selection, led the Royals in runs scored (46), doubles (15), triples (5), walks (23), on-base percentage (.488), total plate appearances (164) and stolen bases (12). She was also second on the team in batting average (.401), slugging percentage (.584), and hits (55).

Zeleniak also put up some impressive numbers. She led Scranton in batting average (.421), hits (56), RBI (52), slugging percentage (.727), home runs (8) and total bases (98), along with being second in doubles (12), triples (3), and on-base percentage (.466). Like Collarini, she also etched her name in the Royal record books, establishing a new record for most RBI (52).

Nagy was a first-team All-Landmark pick and led Juniata in batting with a .430 average, good enough for second among Landmark Conference batting leaders, and is third in the league in hits (49), runs batted in (33), slugging percentage (.711) and on base percentage (.472).

Kauffman earned Landmark Conference Player of the Year honors and was named to the league's First team and was recently picked in the Major League Baseball draft. He led all of Division III in four categories: on base percentage (.645), slugging percentage (.979), total walks (55), and walks per game (1.57). Kauffman's 14 home runs this season placed him eighth among Division III leaders.

Enoch was named the Landmark's Pitcher of the Year, and was also a First team All-Landmark selection. Enoch, who earned Commonwealth Conference Rookie of the Year honors in 2005 and was the league's Pitcher of the Year in 2006, is currently ranked fourth in the nation with a Juniata-record 107 strikeouts.

Spadafora set a new school record for hits in a season with a conference-leading 73, and he is ranked 18th in Division III in the category. He also led the Eagles in stolen bases with 10 out of 12 attempts. Spadafora finished second in the league in batting with a .465 average, and is ranked 18th among Division III leaders.

Maca was a four-year all-conference honoree and team MVP finishing his career at CUA as one of the most decorated baseball players. The shortstop concluded this past season as CUA's top starting hitter batting .385 with 60 hits, 23 for extra bases and 38 RBI to rank him second on the squad. Earlier this summer he was selected second team all-region by the American Baseball Coaches Association.

Little a first team All-Landmark honoree as well as the Landmark Conference Rookie of the Year. He made a solid impact at the plate batting .344 from the lead off position starting in 35 of 29 games played. He had 44 hits and 18 RBI for 57 total bases. Little was also 25-27 in stolen bases and had a .972 fielding percentage.

Brown was the Landmark Conference Rookie of the Year, and was tabbed as the Rangers 2008 Women’s Lacrosse MVP. She recently was named to the IWLCA All-Boardwalk Region first team. Brown led the Rangers in points and finished fifth in the Landmark in points per game at 4.0. She also finished in the Top Five in the conference in goals per game, draw controls and game winning goals.

O'Neill was already awarded her second-consecutive selection to the Intercollegiate Women's Lacrosse Coaches Association all-region team, earlier this year she was also chosen to the All-Landmark first team marking her third all-conference honor. The team captain notched squad-highs in ground balls and caused turnovers in 2008 with 66 and 31 respectively. As a defender she also had 10 goals and seven assists for 17 points on the year.

Robinson put together an outstanding sophomore campaign earning third team All-American honors. She led her team in goals (91) and assists (26) for a squad-best 117 points. Her 5.3 PPG also ranked her third in the nation in scoring average. She has already been honored as the Landmark Conference Player of the Year, first team All-Landmark, first team All-Chesapeake Region and womenslacrosse.com All-American.

DeGiovanni’s selection adds another elite recognition after being named an USILA All-American. DeGiovanni is the Landmark Conference Player of the Year and first team All-Landmark defender. DeGiovanni helped lead the Rangers to the inaugural Landmark Conference title as well as the ECAC Metro/South crown. He led all Landmark defenders in scoring with eight goals and five assists. DeGiovanni was dominant in defense, gathering 108 ground balls on the season. His 6.00 groundballs per game were good for 26th in the NCAA and third in the Landmark Conference.