February 18, 2008

BULLDOGS TAKE WEEKLY HONORS IN SWIMMING, BASEBALL; HONOR ROLL IN BASKETBALL AFTER STANDOUT WEEKEND

SMITHFIELD, RI -- Big weekends for both the Bryant University baseball team and the women's swim team led to a sweeping of Northeast-10 Conference weekly awards for the Bulldogs, as announced by the conference office Monday afternoon.

Sophomore Jess Looney (Goffstown, NH) took home Swimmer of the Week honors after being named Swimmer of the Meet at this weekend's New England Swimming and Diving Championships held at UMass Dartmouth Friday through Sunday. Looney took home three individual first-place finishes, including two school records -- in Friday's 200-yard backstroke (2:09.98) and 200-yard IM (2:13.05) -- and took another win Saturday in the 400-yard IM (4:39.90). Her 200-yard backstroke time was also a pool record. The Bulldogs finished the three-day meet in third place out of 21 teams.

Bulldog baseball had a successful opening weekend of its own, going 2-2 in Winter Park, Fla., taking both wins over NE-10 rival Bentley College, 12-3 and 10-9. For their efforts, the Bulldogs swept the league's weekly honors, starting with Player of the Week Pat O'Connor (Mattapoisett, Mass.).

O'Connor hit .462 (6-for-13) with three doubles and two home runs over four games, while slugging 1.154 in the 2-2 week. In addition, the junior transfer scored four runs and drove in six, while drawing one walk. In the victory over Bentley on Sunday, O'Connor went 3-for-4 at the plate with five RBI, including a home run and three runs scored.

Senior Eric Loh (Old Greenwich, Conn.) was named Pitcher of the Week after getting a win in his season debut against Bentley Saturday afternoon. Loh pitched six innings, allowing one run on six hits and struck out two in Bryant's season opener.

Mark Andrews (Hillsborough, N.J.) joined in on the accolades as well, earning Freshman of the Week with four innings of relief over two appearances, allowing no runs off just one hit and recording three strikeouts.

Bulldogs Jason Alexander, Nick Campbell, Taylor Ferguson, Pat McKenna, Dylan Stone and Jeff Vigurs all earned spots on the baseball weekly honor roll, as did men's basketball's Cecil Gresham and women's basketball's Kelsey O'Keefe for their part in two-win weeks on the court. Swimmer Jill Squillante also made the weekly honor roll for her three top-5 finishes at the New England Championships.