Arpe Announces Retirement at Stonehill

Administrator and coach to step down July 1 after 15 year affiliation with College 

EASTON, Mass. (June 18, 2014) – Stonehill College assistant athletic director and women’s tennis head coach Pam Arpe has announced her retirement and will step down from her positions July 1. The announcement was confirmed today by Brendan J. Sullivan, Director of Intercollegiate Athletics at the College.

“It has truly been a privilege and a pleasure to serve Stonehill College this past number of years,” said Arpe. “I am thankful for the support of Paula Sullivan, Brendan Sullivan and the entire athletic department. The memories are endless, with great student-athletes year in and year out, a wonderful staff and a simply gorgeous place to come and work every day. The friendships that I have made here will last forever. There is no doubt in my mind that the women’s tennis program will continue to flourish and lead the way in the Northeast-10.”

Arpe, a two-time Northeast-10 Conference Coach of the Year, recently completed her tenth season as head women’s tennis coach at Stonehill. In addition to her coaching duties at the College, Arpe served as assistant director of athletics since 2003, overseeing schedule contracts with opponents for all 20 Stonehill varsity athletic programs and serves as a liaison between the athletic department at the College's various travel entities which transport all varsity teams to their away contests as well as NCAA Championship events. She also led the Stonehill field hockey program for eight years, posting a 112-54 (.675) win-loss record from 2000 through 2007, with a pair of NE-10 championships and two NCAA Tournament appearances, reaching the National Semifinal round in 2005.

“On behalf of Stonehill, I would like to thank and congratulate Pam on her tremendously successful tenure at the College,” said Sullivan. “In nearly 15 years of service to the College, she helped elevate two programs, field hockey and women’s tennis, to both conference and national prominence, while also serving as a valued administrator. Over the past decade, she has recruited talented student-athletes to the women’s tennis program that have helped sustain a decade of success in an increasingly challenging Northeast-10 environment. Her coaching shoes will be difficult to fill, but I am so very grateful and appreciative for her service and the positive impact she has had on the lives of many student-athletes. We all wish her well in her next adventure!”

Arpe has led the women’s tennis program through its most successful period in program history, qualifying for postseason play each year and posting the first two 20-win seasons in program history, including a program-best 21-4 clip in 2008-09 when Stonehill reached the NCAA Division II Championships Round of 16. She led the Skyhawks to a 157-49 (.762) overall dual match record over her ten years, including a 107-13 (.892) clip in NE-10 play, with seven NCAA Tournament appearances, three NE-10 regular season championships and two Conference tournament titles. Stonehill has dropped just six NE-10 regular season dual matches (69-6/.920) over the last six seasons, posting an overall record of 110-29 (.791) during that span.

Arpe has produced 37 All-Northeast-10 Conference singles performers and 17 All-NE-10 doubles pairings over her tennis coaching career at Stonehill, 22 of which have earned first team All-Conference singles honors and seven second team All-Conference doubles teams. She has recruited 14 freshmen who have collected NE-10 All-Rookie Team status, including 2009 NE-10 Rookie of the Year Leah White.

Current rising junior Bailey Paradiso (Birmingham, Michigan/Marian) made program history by becoming the first Stonehill women’s tennis student-athlete to earn a regional singles ranking by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) of 19th following the fall 2012 season. She would move up to 12th during the spring season and would be joined by classmate Kristi Toegemann (Narragansett, Rhode Island/The Lincoln School) in the East Regional rankings at 15th. Toegemann and Frost became the first doubles team in program history to earn an ITA regional ranking as well, reaching as high as sixth in the spring of 2012. Paradiso and recent graduate Kaitlyn Martin (Mattapoisett, Massachusetts/Medway) finished the 2013-14 season ranked tenth in the East Region doubles rankings.

Arpe’s teams have also performed in the classroom, producing six NE-10 Academic All-Conference selections with 2012 NE-10 Sport Excellence recipient Paige Frost, ’13, earning Academic All-Conference honors twice. Frost was also recognized following graduation in 2013 with the ITA/Arthur Ashe, Jr., Division II Award for Leadership and Sportsmanship, the first ever from Stonehill to receive the prestigious honor.

Arpe served on the NCAA Division II Men's and Women's Tennis Regional Advisory Committee, which is charged with selecting deserving teams from the East Region for NCAA Championship participation, including a stint as East Region Chair for both committees. She was also on the NCAA Division II National Tennis Committee, serving as its National Chair for two years.

Arpe guided the Stonehill field hockey program to a Northeast-10 Tournament Championship in 2005, as the Skyhawks advanced to the NCAA national semifinals and finished with a program-best 19-3 record overall. Stonehill established a school record with 15 straight wins and saw its national ranking reach No. 4 in the country. The following season, Stonehill won its first-ever Northeast-10 regular season title, going 17-5 and advancing to the NCAA Tournament first round.

Arpe produced seven All-Americans during her field hockey tenure, including two who were featured in Sports Illustrated's “Faces in the Crowd”, and 18 All-Northeast-10 selections. Arpe's teams also excelled academically, with 34 student-athletes being named to the National Field Hockey Coaches Association (NFHCA) National All-Academic team in the last four seasons and 15 others earning Conference All-Academic honors in the last three years.

The Stonehill women’s tennis program, ranked ninth in the final ITA Division II East Regional rankings, capped its season with a 17-7 record overall, including 10-2 in Northeast-10 play. The Skyhawks placed five singles players on the All-Northeast-10 Conference teams and earned their NE-10 record matching 15th NE-10 Tournament appearance. Paradiso and Martin finished the year ranked tenth in the ITA Division II East Regional doubles rankings.

A search for Arpe’s replacement will commence immediately.

With 20 intercollegiate sports, Stonehill boasts one of the top athletic and academic programs in the country. The Skyhawks have finished in the top three in the final NE-10 Presidents' Cup standings ten straight years, including a second place finish in 2013-14, winning the Cup four times, including a streak of three-straight from 2009-10 through 2011-12. This prestigious award is given to the top performing athletic school in the Northeast-10, across all sports and seasons. Stonehill has received the NCAA Division II Presidents' Award for Academic Achievement each of the first three years of the program's existence of honoring programs with an Academic Success Rate (ASR) of 90-percent or better. The Skyhawks have earned a 97% Academic Success Ranking (ASR) by the NCAA, which considers the academic success rate of the institution based on the graduation rate of student-athletes, good for fifth among all NCAA Division II institutions, with ten Skyhawk teams receiving a perfect rating of 100%. In addition, the Skyhawks are ranked sixth in the National Collegiate Scouting Association (NCSA) Power Rankings used to assess the academic and athletic standards of all NCAA and NAIA athletic programs. Stonehill has also been the host site for the 2016 NCAA Division II Field Hockey Championships at W.B. Mason Stadium.  

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