Women’s Volleyball
Winning their sixth SUNYAC title and first in two decades has the Golden Eagles riding high entering 2016 under fourth year head coach Steve Tuttle.
“We are really excited for the 2016 season and the opportunity to defend our SUNYAC Championship, Tuttle said. “Our on-court goals are to return to the NCAA Tournament and reach the Elite 8!”
“We start out our season with some top 25 teams in the country so we should have a pretty good idea of what we need to work on and where we stand in the big picture of volleyball for this year.”
Junior setter Noelle Poloncarz last year led the team in assists and senior Sam Holdredge returns as the team’s second leading point-getter. Junior Kathleen Irwin was the libero most often last year and was one of the best servers in the conference with 57 aces.
Junior Brianna Richardson is also back after leading the team in hitting percentage and blocking and a big part of last years in system offense. Spencerport native and junior Lauren Cuzzupoli was injured for a large portion of last season and hoping to move in regularly from the opposite position. And junior Rachel Fiser was a great serving and defensive specialist last year who we also expect big things from as a setter running our offense.
After an extremely competitive Clarkson Invitational to open the campaign, the team will host Division II Roberts Wesleyan September 6 as well as hosting the first round of conference pool play September 23.
Women’s Soccer
The Joan Schockow era is over after the Spencerport native ended her 28-year coaching career as the winningest soccer coach for either gender in school history.
In steps Mike Idland via the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford where, over eight seasons, he accumulated a record of 88-54-6, including an Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference (AMCC) record of 49-22-2 and qualified for seven straight conference postseasons including four straight runner-up seasons.
“This will be my first season with Brockport Women’s Soccer and I’m very much looking forward to it,” Idland stated. “Although it will be a new experience for me, I honestly feel like I’ve been at Brockport for years at this point. Arriving in mid-February, I was able to spend essentially the entire spring semester with the players, both in office meetings and on the soccer field during our non-trad(itional) practices and competition. So, I feel like I’ve gotten to know them fairly well all things considered. They’re a really fun, funny, competitive group and I think we’re going to be able to take some clear steps forward together this season.”
The Golden Eagles have senior leadership in each area of the field with Stefanie Drago, Kaitlyn Niedermeier and Ashley Makowski (Kendall) at midfield, leading scorer and Second Team All-Conference Chelsea Stahl (Brockport) at forward and Spencerport grad Sabrina DeBellis with Chelsea Bowers anchoring the defense.
Churchville-Chili product Olivia Kuter will look to build on her first year after starting every game as a freshman at midfield.
Junior goalkeeper Cathy Eliasson, who started all 17 games last season and was Second Team All-SUNYAC as a sophomore, is back after she studied abroad and played in Spain during the spring semester.
The squad will try to gel in unfriendly fields with their first six contests on the road before the home and conference opener against Fredonia to begin Family Weekend.
As for any changes to the approach under a new head coach? “We’re going to see if we (can) manage to press the game a bit higher up the field for sure, and I’d like to see if we can bring some more mobility into the attack than I’ve seen in last season’s game film.”
Cross Country
For several seasons, the conversation around cross country at Brockport started with 8k school record holder and future Athletic Hall of Famer Gary Messina. Now the Golden Eagles will rely on their depth.
“I am thrilled for this upcoming season, as we are welcoming about 20 new freshmen to our team,” head coach Danielle Novara said. “Needless to say, we are going to be a very young team and focusing a lot on gradual development and progression. The returners we will be welcoming back made huge strides last year in both the cross country, indoor and outdoor track season and I am excited to see how they not only continue to see success this year but how they lead their younger teammates as well.”
On the men’s side, juniors Stefen Davies, Mike Larkin and sophomores Dylan Brickner, Mike Cossaro and Matt Penberthy will be called on to set the pace.
On the women’s side, sophomore Kennedy Copeland and juniors Meghan Trimer and Kailean Hubbard will be expected to help the team better their sixth place finish at the conference meet from last season.
“Our depth has remained and we are bringing in some greatly talented men who have a lot of upside. On the women’s side we have a large number of returning women who have the potential to step up … as well as a deep recruiting class of mid-distance specialists to help round out the team.”
The teams will begin their six-meet schedule at St. John Fisher Labor Day weekend.
Football
A 1-3 finish to the 2015 season doomed the Golden Eagles to their second consecutive 5-5 record. But with the best offense in the conference averaging 33.6 points per game and the fourth best defense, optimism is there for a quick turnaround.
“We’re excited about seeing another recruiting class enter our program and the development of our returners meld together,” head coach Jason Mangone said. “The addition of our new Defensive Coordinator in Mike Fox has everyone in our program excited.”
The offense centers around the school’s all-time leader in touchdowns and preseason First Team All-American Dan Andrews, who begins the season just 136 yards from breaking the school mark for career rushing yards held by Adam Rodger. Juniors Mark Sanchez and Justin Torres (Churchville-Chili) anchor the offensive line.
The leading wide receiver in the Empire 8 is back in Jerry Thompson, but the team has no quarterback returning who threw a single pass in 2015. Senior Mike Torillo with juniors Brian McKean and Kevin Carr will battle three freshmen for the starting job.
All-Empire 8 selection Alex Egglinger will be joined by Hilton’s Jake Brickler and Matt Szymanski, who both missed 2015 with injuries as a solid line-backing corp.
Sophomore Jake O’Connell (Spencerport) tied for second on the team in tackles from the secondary with classmate Brandon Thomas also back. Senior Ed Suriano and sophomore Romario Gordon are the mainstays on a rebuilding defensive line.
The season opens at home September 3 against Hobart with the annual Courage Bowl with St. John Fisher September 24 also home and Homecoming Weekend with rival Cortland October 22.
