Senior Anthony Masucci is the second Stonehill football student-athlete to be named the NE-10 Scholar-Athlete Sport Excellence recipient in football. (PHOTO BY Andrew Katsampes) |
McAdams and Masucci also named NE-10 Scholar-Athlete Sport Excellence Award recipients for women's cross country & football, respectively
EASTON, Mass. (February 17, 2016) – Stonehill College has placed eight of its fall student-athletes on the Northeast-10 Conference Academic All-Conference teams for their performances on the field of play as well as the classroom.
Senior Anthony Masucci (East Haven, Connecticut/Notre Dame-West Haven) and junior Aisha McAdams (North Kingstown, Rhode Island/North Kingstown) highlight Stonehill's eight Academic All-Conference recipients by also being named NE-10 Scholar-Athlete Sport Excellence Award winners for football and women's cross country, respectively. Both receive the honors for the first time in their careers, with Masucci becoming the second football student-athlete to receive the honors and McAdams the third women's cross country student-athlete to collect the award. Maura Ferrarini '12 (2011) and Caroline McBride '13 (2012) were previous Sport Excellence Award recipients in women's cross country, while James Lanier '14 (2013) was the first football student-athlete to receive Sports Excellence honors.
Masucci and McAdams headline a list of eight Stonehill student-athletes to earn Northeast-10 Academic All-Conference honors for the fall season. The NE-10 Champion field hockey program led the way with three Academic All-Conference selections in seniors Maggie Travers (Scituate, Massachusetts/Scituate) and Elizabeth Thornton (Needham, Massachusetts/Needham) as well as junior Sarah Morse (Westminster, Massachusetts/Oakmont Regional). Sophomore quarterback Matt Foltz (Mount Joy, Pennsylvania/Donegal) joined Masucci as a member of the football NE-10 Academic All-Conference team, while women's soccer junior Claire O'Brien (West Hartford, Connecticut/Hall) and men's soccer senior RJ Aprile (Carmel, New York/Kennedy Catholic) round out the Academic All-Conference recipients.
Stonehill's eight Academic All-Conference selections are second-highest in the league for the fall program, while its two Sport Excellence recipients also ranks second. It marks the second straight year the field hockey team has had three Academic All-Conference performers to lead all NE-10 field hockey programs.
Masucci, who has earned a 3.59 cumulative grade point average as a finance major at Stonehill, earns NE-10 Academic All-Conference honors for the second straight year to go with his Scholar-Athlete Sport Excellence award. Masucci was named the Nils V. "Swede" Nelson Award recipient from the Gridiron Club of Greater Boston as well as the football program's second CoSIDA Academic All-American this fall after being named to the Academic All-District I first team for the second straight year. He was a National Football Foundation Campbell Trophy and National Scholar-Athlete Award semifinalist and has been named to the NE-10 Commissioner's and Athletic Director's Honor Roll all seven semesters at the College.
Masucci |
Foltz |
Masucci, who earned All-Northeast-10 honors for the first time in his career with a spot on the second team this past fall, started all 11 games and finished the season with 63 tackles (29 solo), including 4.0 for a loss of 15 yards, with an interception and four pass breakups. He finished his career as one of just 17 in Stonehill history with 200-plus tackles, posting 203 stops (101 solo) in 42 career games played, starting 32 – including each of the final 22 of his career.
Foltz, who has earned a 3.71 cumulative grade point average as an economics major at Stonehill, joins Masucci on the NE-10 Academic All-Conference football team for the first time in his career. He has been named to the NE-10 Commissioner's and Athletic Director's Honor Rolls all three semesters at the College and was named the NE-10 Offensive Player of the Week twice this past fall, also earning the New England Football Writers' Gold Helmet Award on September 28 after engineering a 40-37 comeback win at LIU Post with a school-record matching six touchdown passes, including three over the final 1:02, capped by a 41-yard game winning Hail Mary as time expired, posting the first 400-yard passing game in program history with 421 yards.
Foltz posted just the third 2,000-yard passing season in program history this past fall, finishing second among NE-10 leaders with 2,175 yards and 25 touchdowns – the second-highest single-season total in program history. He started all 11 games for Stonehill this past fall and completed 188-of-331 passes with just nine interceptions, averaging 197.7 yards per game, with a 131.48 pass efficiency rating. Foltz started the final four games of his freshman season, earning NE-10 Rookie of the Week honors twice and leading the team with eight rushing touchdowns in just four games.
McAdams, who has earned a 3.54 cumulative grade point average as a communication major at Stonehill, earns NE-10 Academic All-Conference honors for the first time in her career in addition to being named the Scholar-Athlete Sport Excellence Award recipient for women's cross country. She helped lead the Skyhawks to a seventh straight NE-10 Championship and 13th NCAA East Regional title to advance to the NCAA Division II Championships for the 16th straight year. McAdams has been named to the NE-10 Commissioner's Honor Roll and Athletic Director's Honor Rolls all five semesters at the College.
McAdams earned All-Northeast-10 Conference first team honors for the third straight year this fall with her second place finish at the NE-10 Championships in 22:32.0 over the six-kilometer course. She also earned U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) All-East Region honors for the second time with a 15th place finish at the East Regional in 22:12.78 over the six-kilometers. McAdams also posted a third place finish at the Ted Owen Invitational (18:49.8).
Thornton, who has earned a 3.66 cumulative grade point average as an elementary education major at Stonehill, earns NE-10 Academic All-Conference honors for the second straight year after helping lead the field hockey team to a second straight NE-10 Tournament Championship and NCAA Tournament bid. She earned a spot on the Longstreth/National Field Hockey Coaches Association (NFHCA) All-America second team and All-Northeast-10 second team as a junior. Thornton has been named to the NFHCA All-Academic Squad all three years to date and the NE-10 Commissioner's and Athletic Director's Honor Roll all seven semesters.
Thornton started 19 of the 20 games she played during her senior season for Stonehill this fall. She finished the year with two goals and four assists for eight points in helping the Skyhawks to the NE-10 title. She finished her career with 12 goals and seven assists for 31 points in 72 career games played. Off the field, Thornton participated in the Stonehill Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) program, working with Robert Rodgers, Assistant Professor of Political Science, and William Ewell, Associate Professor of Political Science, on The Conservative Advantage: Partisan Bias in the American Political System.
Sophomore QB Matt Foltz joins Masucci on the NE-10 Academic All-Conference football team. (PHOTO BY Lewis Glass/SportsPix) |
Travers, who has earned a 3.64 cumulative grade point average as a mathematics major at Stonehill, also earned NE-10 Academic All-Conference honors for the second straight year. She is a member of Kappa Delta Pi Education Honor Society, has been selected to the NFHCA National Academic Squad all three years to date and been named to the NE-10 Commissioner's Honor Roll all seven semesters and the Athletic Director's Honor Roll six semesters.
Travers played all 21 games, starting 20, for a Stonehill back line that posted a 2.04 team goals against average with four shutouts this fall. She dished out four assists and recorded two defensive saves for the Skyhawks as well. Travers has played 72 games over her career at Stonehill, totaling two goals and five assists for nine points, contributing a gamewinning goal and five defensive saves.
Morse, who has achieved a 3.76 cumulative grade point average as a finance major at Stonehill, earns NE-10 Academic All-Conference honors for the first time in her career. She earned All-America honors for the first time this fall as a consensus first team selection by the NFHCA and synapsesports.com, while also being named to the All-Northeast-10 Conference first team for the first time. Morse is a two-time NE-10 All-Championship team selection who was named Most Outstanding Player at this year's NE-10 Tournament. She is an NFHCA National Academic Squad member two years and has been named to the NE-10 Commissioner's and Athletic Director's Honor Rolls all five semesters.
Morse, who received the St. Thomas Aquinas, Patron Saint of Students, Medal for having the highest cumulative GPA on the field hockey team, played all 21 games, starting 20, for Stonehill this fall. She led the team with 12 assists, which ranked second nationally and in the NE-10, while also ranking second on the program's single-season list. She also netted four goals, three of which were game winners, for 20 points – good for 13th among NE-10 scoring leaders. Her 24 career assists rank fifth all-time in Stonehill history, having also registered six goals for 36 points in 59 career games.
O'Brien, who has recorded a 3.64 cumulative grade point average as a mediated communication major at Stonehill, earns Academic All-Northeast-10 women's soccer honors for the second straight year. She is a two time All-Northeast-10 selection, earning second team honors this fall, after anchoring a Skyhawks backline which ranked sixth in the Conference with a 1.16 team goals against average with five shutouts. She is a three-time New England Women's Intercollegiate Soccer Association (NEWISA) All-New England selection, earning first team honors this fall, and was named to the National Soccer Coaches Association (NSCAA)/Continental Tire All-East Region third team as a sophomore. O'Brien has been named to the NE-10 Commissioner's and Athletic Director's Honor Rolls all five semesters at the College to date.
O'Brien served as team captain this fall and was one of six Stonehill players to start all 18 matches this season. In fact, she has started all 54 matches of her collegiate career so far, contributing two goals and an assist for five points over her career, netting one match winning goal.
Aprile, who has earned a 3.74 cumulative grade point average as a chemistry major at Stonehill, earns Academic All-Northeast-10 men's soccer honors for the first time in his career. He has been named to the NE-10 Commissioner's and Athletic Director's Honor Roll all seven semesters at the College and has received the St. Thomas Aquinas Medal for having the highest cumulative GPA on the team the last two years. Aprile has also participated in Stonehill's SURE Program with Marilena Hall, Associate Professor of chemistry, on The Effect of Mutations on Protein Production and Phage Propagation in M13 Bacteriophage.
Aprile started all 17 matches for Stonehill this fall, serving as team captain, totaling two goals and an assist for five points out of the midfield. One of his two markers was the gamewinning goal in a 3-2 triumph at Roberts Wesleyan College on September 12. He started 57 of the 68 matches he played over his Stonehill career and finished with five goals and seven assists for 17 points.
With 20 intercollegiate sports, Stonehill boasts one of the top athletic and academic programs in the country. In addition to winning its fifth Northeast-10 Presidents' Cup following the 2014-15 academic year, the Skyhawks have received the NCAA Division II Presidents' Award for Academic Achievement each of the first five years of the program's existence of honoring institutions with an Academic Success Rate (ASR) of 90-percent or better. Stonehill has earned a 96% Academic Success Ranking (ASR) by the NCAA two straight years, 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 12 Skyhawk teams receiving a perfect rating of 100%. In addition, the Skyhawks are ranked third in the National Collegiate Scouting Association (NCSA) Power Rankings for Division II used to assess the academic and athletic standards of all NCAA and NAIA athletic programs. Stonehill has also been selected as the host of the 2016 NCAA Division II Field Hockey Championships at W.B. Mason Stadium.
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