Dufour Among Six Spring Athletes Named to Northeast-10 All-Academic Team

NORTH ANDOVER, MA – Six spring athletes were named to the 2009 Northeast-10 All-Academic Team Thursday afternoon.

Dylan Ellis (Gloucester, MA), Kelly Pasquantonio (Plainville, MA), Kelsey Ellis (Vancouver, BC), Steve Viglione (Shelton, CT), Adam Wilding (Lewiston, ME), and Elise Dufour (Bristol, RI) each earned all-academic honors, as voted by on by the conference’s Sports Information Directors.

Dylan Ellis posted a 5-3 record with 3.88 E.R.A. in 12 appearances and ten starts, while tallying a team-best 59 strikeouts.

Pasquantonio, an All-American and Merrimack’s Female Scholar Athlete of the Year as a sophomore in 2008, tallied a team-high 42 goals and 65 ground balls, while finishing second with 61 points.

Kelsey Ellis, a NFCA regional All-American selection, was second in the conference with a .411 average and had five homers and 27 RBIs. Her 24 steals in 30 attempts were also second in the Northeast-10, as the Warriors won 17 more games in 2009 than in 2008.

Viglione was an all-conference third-team selection, leading the men’s tennis team to its second-straight and second-ever NCAA appearance and keyed the first NCAA tournament victory in school history with the decisive win in a 5-4 victory over Adelphi.

Wilding, a three-time all-academic selection, earned all-conference honors at the #2 singles and the #2 doubles position, while being named Merrimack’s Male Scholar Athlete of the Year.

Finally, Dufour, an all-conference third-team doubles selection, led the women’s tennis team to its first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance.

Sixty-eight Merrimack student-athletes, 22 more than last year, were named to the Merrimack Athletic Department Honor Roll, posting a grade-point-average of over 3.5 in the 2008-09 academic year. Merrimack also featured 64 athletes on Northeast-10 All-Conference teams, 24 more than in 2007-08.