Oct. 17, 2001
CLEVELAND -
Western Michigan's Frederika Girsang (tennis) and
Miami's Ben Roethlisberger (football) were named the MAC Scholar
Athletes of the Week on October 16, 2001.
Girsang (So., 3.12, education, Jakarta, Indonesia) won both the "A"
singles and doubles flight at the Houston Cougar Invitational. She
posted a 6-0 mark overall in the tournament. Girsang won all three of
her singles matches in straight sets and defeated Jennifer Langer of SMU
6-3, 6-2 in the finals to the win the championship. She teamed with
Melanie Remynse to post three wins in the doubles tournament. Their
closest match was 8-4 and they won the final match over
Hagedoorn/Goodrich of Rice, 8-0. Girsang is a perfect 7-0 in singles,
as she won the Bronco Inviational "A" flight earlier this season. She
sports a 6-1 mark in doubles action.
Roethlisberger (R-Fr., 3.07, physical education, Findlay, Ohio)
completed 23-of-40 passes for three touchdowns and just one interception
in a last-second win over Akron on Saturday, Oct. 13. His 399 yards
passing set a new single-game school record, breaking Mike Bath's 358
yards vs. Vanderbilt last season. His 458 yards of total offense (59
rushing, 399 passing) also set a school record, eclipsing Travis
Prentice's 376 yards against Akron in 1999. Roethlisberger completed a
70-yard pass to Eddie Tillitz as time elapsed to beat Akron, 30-27. He
continued his streak of throwing at least one touchdown in every game
and completed passes to eight different receivers versus Akron.
Roethlisberger is on pace to break every school passing record.
The MAC Scholar Athlete of the Week honor is presented to a MAC male and
female student-athlete who has a cumulative grade point average of 3.0
or better and performs well during that week's competition. The winners
are selected by one of the conference's faculty athletic
representatives.
Female Nominees:
Bowling Green: Natalie Becker (volleyball, Sr., 3.22, biology,
Frankfort, Ill.) hit a team-high .333 as BGSU went 2-1 last week. She
averaged 11.40 assists and 1.80 digs per game. The Falcons played three
five-game matches, beating Kent State and Eastern Michigan, but losing
at Toledo. Becker hit .444 (4-0-9) with 56 assists, 13 digs and a solo
block in the come-from-behind win over KSU. She had 59 assists at UT
and hit .462 (7-1-13) with 56 assists and eight digs at EMU. On the
season, she is hitting .248 with 11.62 assists and 2.09 digs per game.
Central Michigan: Allison Campbell (soccer, Sr., 3.08, health fitness,
Livonia, Mich.) posted two goals and two assists in three matches last
week. She tallied two goals in a win over Bowling Green, including the
game-winner, and had a pair of assists against Toledo. CMU went 2-1 on
the week thanks to Campbell's six points. CMU is in second place in the
MAC.
Kent State: Bethany Sanker (soccer, Jr., 4.00, marketing, Lakewood,
Ohio) scored the game winning goal in Kent State's 1-0 win against
Toledo Oct. 14 to give the Golden Flashes its first road win of the
season. Sanker is now tied for second on team in goals with two.
Marshall: Sarah Gupton (soccer, So., 3.53, undecided, Richmond, Ind.)
scored the game-winning goal against top-ranked Buffalo on Friday, Oct.
12.
Miami: Andrea Kremer (cross country, So., 3.81, mathematics,
Indianapolis, Ind.) finished 18th out of 246 runners in the Silver race
at the Pre-NCAA Invitational, hosted by Furman University in Greenville,
S.C. Her time of 21:27 was 19 seconds faster than the next-best
Mid-American Conference runner. Kremer's performance helped Miami place
15th out of 37 teams in the Silver race and finish eight spots ahead of
No. 25 Baylor. Her finish represents a dramatic improvement at this
meet from last year, when she came in 204th out of 374 participants.
Ohio: Christel Schiering (soccer, So., 3.26, early childhood education,
Cincinnati, Ohio) scored her team-leading seventh goal of the season on
Friday to help Ohio to a 2-0 win over Miami in women's soccer.
Schiering ranks among the Mid-American Conference leaders in goals and
points (15), and she also leads Ohio (6-6, 5-2 MAC) with 33 shots this
season. A second-year Bobcat, she is already third on the all-time goal
scoring list with 16 and she needs just one goal to move into a tie for
second place in the career record books.
Toledo: Heidi Neumeister (volleyball, Jr., 3.73, multi-age education,
Olmsted Falls, Ohio) posted 4.15 kills per game and a .333 attack
percentage to lead the Rockets to a 3-0 record last week. She also led
the team with 0.62 blocks per game and 0.46 service aces per game. In
the Rockets' 3-2 win over arch-rival Bowling Green on Friday, she
registered a season-high .429 attack percentage with a season-high 24
kills.
Male Nominees:
Akron: Kyle Milligan (soccer, Sr., 3.58, exercise science/physiology,
Hudson, Ohio) posted a shutout in goal for the second game in a row with
a 1-0 win over Wright State. Since his return from an injury six games
ago, Milligan has posted a record of 6-0 with three shutouts and has a
save percentage of .833. His goals against average is 0.69. Against
WSU on Sunday, Milligan faced five shots and totaled four saves. Akron
is now 6-3-1 overall and 4-0 in MAC play.
Bowling Green: David DeGraff (soccer, So., 3.22, criminal justice,
Naperville, Ill.) had a 1-1 record and a goals against average of 0.50
last week. He posted a 1-0 victory at Michigan, and the Falcons lost a
1-0 decision at Marshall. DeGraff held the two opponents to a combined
shooting percentage of .019 (one goal in 52 total shot attempts). He
had 18 saves for a .947 save percentage in the two matches. In the
Marshall contest, he made a career-high 13 saves. DeGraff now has 55
saves in 10 matches for a save percentage of .821 on the year.
Buffalo: Andre Forde (football, Jr., 3.03, business management,
Penfield, N.Y.) moved into third place all-time in kickoff return
yardage with 107 yards on six returns on Saturday, Oct. 13. That upped
his career total to 854 yards and also moved him into third place
all-time in kickoff returns (44). Forde accounted for a career-high 228
all-purpose yards in the loss to Marshall.
Central Michigan: Rick Bauer (cross country, Jr., 3.07, physical
education, Howell, Mich.) placed 16th at the Pre-Nationals meet at
Furman. He ran :24.46 to lead CMU to a 16th-place finish out of 34
teams. He has been the top Chippewa in each meet he has participated in
this season.
Kent State: David Alston (football, So., 3.00, justice studies,
Willingboro, N.J.) scored two touchdowns and rushed for a career-high
141 yards on 8.8 yards a carry in the 44-34 win over Northern Illinois.
Alston ran 37 yards to set up the game-winning touchdown from teammate
Mikal Lundy and ran 25 yards to set up a 26-yard field goal from Dave
Pavich. The Golden Flashes are now 2-0 at home.
Marshall: Wayne Bennett (soccer, Sr., 3.37, psychology, Boksburg, South
Africa) led a defense that held Bowling Green to only six shots. He
also assisted the game-winning goal versus BGSU.
Ohio: Dave Zastudil (football, Sr., 3.21, marketing, Bay Village, Ohio)
kicked a season-high six times on Saturday, against Central Michigan.
He has now punted 20 times this season, enough to qualify for national
and conference rankings. Zastudil averaged 55.0 yards per kick, the
second-best in school history for one game. He kicked five-of-six
attempts over 50 yards, including a season-long 61-yarder. His kicks
covered 53, 49, 55, 58, 61 and 54 yards and he had a 43-yard effort into
the endzone negated when he was roughed, giving Ohio a first down.
Zastudil has booted 11 of his 20 punts this season for 50-plus yards and
he averages 48.0 yards per kick.
Western Michigan: Ravishankar Pathanjali (tennis, So., 3.10, business,
Tamilnadu, Ind.) reached the "A" flight finals in both singles and
doubles at the Purdue Invitational. He posted a team-high five wins and
earned singles wins over players from Indiana State (finished last
season No. 28 in the country) and Purdue in straight sets. Ravishankar
teamed with Ryan Maarschalk to reach the finals of "A" doubles after
downing Skogman/Wilson of Iowa 9-8 in the semifinals.
Previous Winners:
Female
Week 1 (Sept. 5) Amanda Kulikowski, EMU (soccer)
Week 2 (Sept. 11) Katie Kuzior, UA (volleyball)
Week 3 (Sept. 18) MAC competition cancelled
Week 4 (Sept. 25) Andrea Kremer, MIA (cross country)
Week 5 (Oct. 2) Megan Ramey, WMU (soccer)
Week 6 (Oct. 9) Jennifer Eaton, MIA (volleyball)
Week 7 (Oct. 16) Frederika Girsang, WMU (tennis)
Male
Week 1 (Sept. 5) Zac Derr, UA (football)
Week 2 (Sept. 11) Thomas Hammock, NIU (football)
Week 3 (Sept. 18) MAC competition cancelled
Week 4 (Sept. 25) Andy Avery, UB (football)
Week 5 (Oct. 2) Brian Godsey, MIA (cross country)
Week 6 (Oct. 9) Bill Norberg, UB (soccer)
Week 7 (Oct. 16) Ben Roethlisberger, MIA (football)