FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 2, 2014
ESSEX, Vt. – Three national
championship teams and five individuals were inducted into the
Northeast-10 Conference Hall of Fame as part of the 2014 Class, it
was announced Monday night during the league’s yearend
banquet at the Essex Resort & Spa in Essex, Vt.
The 2001 Bentley University field hockey team, the 2003 Stonehill
College women’s lacrosse team and the 2004 Le Moyne College
men’s lacrosse team were the national title winning programs
that received induction on Monday night.
Assumption College’s Stephanie DeLucia
’99 (softball), Bentley University’s
Marc Eddy ’04 (football),
Bentley’s Nate Fritsch ’08
(men’s basketball), Merrimack College’s Greg Rogowski
’09 (men’s lacrosse) and Southern
Connecticut State University’s Kate Lynch
’08 (women’s basketball) were the
five individual inductees at Monday night’s event.
The inductees will be recognized on their respective campuses
throughout the 2014-15 academic year in a ceremony chosen by the
individual institutions.
The 2001 Bentley field hockey team became just the second team in
conference history to win a national title, defeating East
Stroudsburg, 4-2, in the championship game, as head coach Kelly
McGowan’s team set a school record for wins (22) in the
process. Bentley finished 22-1 that year and had five players
selected to Northeast-10 All-Conference Teams, including Player of
the Year Alison Bunce.
The 2003 Stonehill women’s lacrosse team became the third-ever Northeast-10 team to win a national title, as the then-Chieftains won it all by defeating Longwood, 9-8, in a thrilling championship game. Stonehill trailed 8-5 but scored the final four goals of the contest to earn their first-ever national title (54 years). The team finished with a 17-2 record and featured three All-Americans, including current Skyhawks coach Katie (Lambert) Conover and former Bentley head coach Carissa Medeiros, who is now the head coach at former Northeast-10 member UMass Lowell.
The 2004 Le Moyne men’s lacrosse program became the first team in school history and first men’s squad in Northeast-10 history to win a national title. More than 19,000 fans were on hand to witness the Dolphins defeat Limestone, 11-10, in double overtime, in a game that many refer to as one of the greatest lacrosse games in Division II history. Le Moyne finished with a perfect 16-0 record and had four student-athletes named All-Americans, while eight received Northeast-10 All-Conference recognition.
DeLucia is one of the premier softball players in Assumption history, as the Greyhounds posted an amazing 110-62-3 record in her time with the program, including a 70-25-2 mark her last two years. The Franklin, Mass. native hit a stellar .466 for her career and is the program leader in both runs (155) and doubles (63) and also ranks second in hits (260), third in triples (12), fourth in RBI (124) and fifth in home runs (16). Meanwhile on the mound, she went 27-20 with a 2.11 ERA and 31 complete games. She won the NCAA Division II batting title in 1998 with a .566 average, and she also went on to earn an NCAA postgraduate scholarship.
Eddy, a quarterback, was twice named Northeast-10 Most Valuable
Player and was a finalist for the Harlon Hill Award in
2004. The same year, the Southboro, Mass. native received the
Agganis Award, given annually to the top senior football player in
New England, which marked just the second time in 39 years it had
been presented to a non-Division I player. He finished his Falcons
career with an NCAA Division II record for career touchdown passes
(121), most games with 3+ touchdowns (26), most games with a
touchdown pass (T41) and most 300-yard games (T16). He completed
his career with a team record of 37-7 and led the Falcons to their
only two NCAA Tournament berths.
Fritsch helped lead the Falcons to one of the most successful
stretches in program history, going 117-17 during his four years. A
Durham, N.C. native, the 6-6 forward helped lead Bentley to the
2007 Elite Eight and the 2008 Final Four after completing the
regular-season portion of each season undefeated. On
Bentley’s all-time lists, Fritsch ranks third in three-point
percentage, fourth in blocks, 13th in rebounds and 17th in scoring,
having finished his career with 1,442 points.
Rogowski was a four-time All-American selection, becoming the
first student-athlete in Merrimack athletics history to achieve
such a feat. He was a two-time Northeast-10 Player of the Year and
was voted Northeast-10 First Team All-Conference all four years.
Rogowski, who hails from Cohoes, N.Y., led the Warriors to their
first-ever Final Four appearance in 2009 and is the program’s
all-time leader both goals (213) and points (313). He also set the
Merrimack single-season record for goals with 71 as a rookie in
2006.
Lynch helped lead the Owls to the 2007 NCAA Women’s
Basketball Division II Championship and was named Most Outstanding
Performer of the championship. A Rumford, R.I. native, Lynch
is the program’s all-time leading scoring leader with 1,779
career points and is fifth in rebounding (650). Addition accolades
include being named the 2008 Regional Player of the Year and the
2007 Northeast-10 Player of the Year. Currently the head coach at
Molloy College in Rockville Centre, N.Y., the former Community
College of Rhode Island head coach was named the 2013 Russell
Athletic/WBCA National Coach of the Year and this past April was
inducted into the Connecticut Women's Basketball Hall of Fame.
The Northeast-10 Conference is an association of 15 NCAA Division
II colleges and universities located in New England and New York
that is committed to supporting balanced academic and athletic
opportunities for more than 6,000 student-athletes. Each year,
4,000 of those student-athletes compete in conference championships
in 23 sports, making the NE-10 the largest DII conference in the
country in terms of sport sponsorship. Leading the way in the
classroom, on the field and within the community, the Northeast-10
is proud of its comprehensive program and the experience it
provides student-athletes.
2014
Northeast-10 Conference 2014 Hall of Fame Class
Stephanie DeLucia, Assumption
Marc Eddy, Bentley
Nate Fritsch, Bentley
Greg Rogowski, Merrimack
Kate Lynch, Southern Connecticut
2001 Bentley Field Hockey
2003 Stonehill Women’s Lacrosse
2004 Le Moyne Men’s Lacrosse
– #NE10 –