Recapping a Historical Year in Merrimack Athletics
Recapping the year in Merrimack Athletics
January
January 20: The men's basketball team improves to 14-3 with a 83-66 win over Saint Rose, using a late 28-2 run to put the game away.
February
February 5: Darren Duncan, one of only two Division II athletes, is named a finalist for the Bob Cousy Award given to the top collegiate male point guard in the country.
February 10: The Merrimack men's basketball team won a Northeast-10 Conference game by the largest margin (39 points) ever against Franklin Pierce University at home, 86-47. Led by 19 points from Darren Duncan, all ten Warriors who played also scored.
March
March 14: Behind double-doubles and 25 points each from Darren Duncan and Dee Mency, the Merrimack men's basketball team storms into the NCAA Regional Semifinal with an 86-84 overtime win over UMass Lowell. With his 25th point of the contest, Mency scores his 1,000th point in just two seasons.
March 20: Freshman pitcher Chris Pinette throws the first no-hitter in the Merrimack baseball program's history.
April
April 1: Glenn Hofmann officially takes office as Merrimack's Director of Athletics.
April 26: With a third-inning triple against Saint Rose, centerfielder Jeff Bercume sets the Merrimack College program record for career hits (222).
April 29: Jill Gagnon throws her second straight no-hitter, leading the softball team to a 1-0 Northeast-10 Quarterfinal victory over Southern New Hampshire.
May
May 1: Head softball coach Elaine Schwager is named Northeast-10 Conference Coach of the Year.
May 7: The women's tennis team makes its first-ever NCAA appearance, falling to Stonehill.
May 8: Making its second NCAA appearance in as many years, the men's tennis team defeats Adelphi 5-4 for its first-ever tournament victory.
May 16: The men's lacrosse team plays in its first-ever NCAA Final Four game. Greg Rogowski concludes his historic career as a four-time All-American, two-time Northeast-10 Player of the Year, and the all-time leading scorer in program history.
May 18: Softball players Jill Gagnon and Kelsey Ellis were named to the NFCA All-American East Region first team.
May 20: Construction begins on phase one of the Lawler Completion Project. A new ice bed and compressor costing approximately 1.2 million is installed over the summer.
June
June 2: Caitlin Hall of the women's soccer team is named the Northeast-10 Conference Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year.
June 3: Featuring six NCAA Tournament appearances and three Northeast-10 runner-ups, Merrimack placed fifth of 15 schools in the 2008-09 Northeast-10 President's Cup Standings. If just the 15 sports played at Merrimack were taken into account, the Warriors would have finished second with 132 points, five behind Bentley University.
June 8: Andrew Braithwaite was named the Hockey East Co-Top Scholar Athlete of the Year for the second time while 15 of his teammates were named to the Hockey East All-Academic Team.
June 25: Women's basketball captain Casey Miller, a three-time Merrimack Athletic Department Honor Roll recipient, is one of seven players named to the Northeast-10 Conference All-Academic Team with a 3.74 GPA in Sports Medicine.
June 27: Goaltender Joe Cannata and defenseman Kyle Bigos were selected in the 2009 NHL Entry Draft Saturday, marking the first time two Warriors were taken in the same draft since 2001.
July
July 20: 175 Student-Athletes, the most in school history, are named to the Northeast-10 Conference Commissioner's Honor Roll.
August
August 29: Senior Caitlin Hall is named the 2009 East Region Collegiate Commisioner's Association Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year and a finalist for the CCA National Scholar-Athlete award.
September
September 5: Gabrielle Gramprey of the women's soccer team scores the 30th hat trick in program history in a 3-0 win over Assumption College.
September 16: Gramprey scores her 10th goal of the season and becomes the 11th member of the 100-point club at Merrimack with a 3-1 win over Bentley University in Waltham, Massachusetts.
October
October 10: Volleyball head coach Joey Pacis becomes the program's leader in wins, getting his 100th career victory in a 3-1 win over Franklin Pierce.
October 17: In just his second career game, freshman Stephane Da Costa scores five times, including a natural hat trick, becoming the first player in Merrimack's Hockey East history and the first in Hockey East in eight years to score five times. He is the first freshman in NCAA history to score a natural hat trick and get five goals in the same game, let alone in his second career game.
October 19: The field hockey team reaches their highest national ranking in program history at #8 following three straight wins by a combined score of 10-2.
October 20: The women's soccer team clinches its 25th straight Northeast-10 Conference postseason berth with a 2-1 win over Saint Michael's College. In doing so, they become the only remaining team to have made the Conference postseason in all 25 years of Northeast-10's existence.
October 28: The Merrimack field hockey team, led by the Division II Coach of the Year Anne Rounce, defeats Adelphi 2-1 in the Northeast-10 Quarterfinals for the program's first-ever playoff victory and a school-record 13th victory of the season. In the process, freshman April Daugherty sets the school record for points in a season with forty.
October 28: Robbie Sabadoz of the men's soccer team scores both goals in a 2-0 win over UMass-Lowell to tie the program record for single-season goals (19) set by Rich Fleming in 1996.
October 30: Sabadoz is named Northeast-10 Conference Player of the Year.
November
November 7: Football team clinches share of second-career Northeast-10 Championship, winning its seventh game of the season, 46-14 over Pace.
November 13: In front of the first sellout crowd at Lawler Arena since February 9, 2002, the hockey team improves to 6-0 at home for the first time since joining Hockey East with a 6-3 victory over the 2008 NCAA National Champion Boston University.
November 13: The women's soccer team downs UMass Lowell in penalty kicks in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
November 13: Sophomore James Suozzo was named the 2009 Northeast-10 Football Most Valuable Player, while 10 of his co-champion teammates were named to All-Conference teams.
December
December 5: Junior Sarah Benischek scores a game and career-high 21 points to guide the women's basketball team back from an 11-point halftime deficit to a 75-70 win at Saint Michael's College.
December 8: As one of five Warriors in double figures, sophomore Wayne Mack scores a career-high 22 points in a 101-92 men's basketball win over Southern New Hampshire.
December 9: Gabrielle Gramprey is named an All-American for the third time in her college career by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA).
December 21: Senior guard Casey Miller reaches 1,000 career points.
