Soccer Team Hauls In GNAC Hardware

WEST HARTFORD, Conn. – The University of Saint Joseph soccer team cleaned up on the Great Northeast Conference awards that were announced Monday.

USJ freshman Melissa Dodge (Watertown, Conn.) was named GNAC Defensive Player of the Year, freshman Sara Barnick (Watertown, Conn.) was named GNAC Rookie of the Year and Coach Chris LeGates was named GNAC Coach of the Year for the fifth time.

In all, seven Saint Joseph players were named to the All-GNAC team. Dodge, senior defender Kristin Whitman (South Windsor, Conn.) and junior forward Patricia Nolan (Portland, Conn.) were named First Team. Named Second Team were three midfielders: Barnick, junior Nicole Mendelson (Southbury, Conn.) and sophomore Katie Mirabella (Seymour, Conn.). Freshman defender Lindsay Cifaldi (Wolcott, Conn.) was named Third Team.

“When you have such great team success, the individual accomplishments are a byproduct of that,” Saint Joseph coach Chris LeGates said. “I’m really proud of all seven of them and you could make a case for even more of them in my opinion. I think to all of them the biggest number is 14, for the number of wins we had.”

Dodge leads the GNAC and is second in the country among NCAA Division IIII goalkeepers with a .942 save percentage and also leads the conference with a 0.38 Goals Against Average. She allowed only six goals on 98 shots faced and had nine shutouts while starting two other combined shutouts. Barnick is third on the team in scoring with eight goals and three assists for 19 points.

Nolan leads the Blue Jays with 13 goals and has career school records of 44 goals and 102 points. Mirabella is second on the Blue Jays in scoring with eight goals, five assists and 21 points. Mendelson has a pair of goals and four assists. Whitman and Cifaldi were key components of a defense that allowed only seven goals all season.

“Kristin being a senior, that is a great way to go out for her,” LeGates said, “being recognized for being the premier player in the conference at her position.”

Regarding the first-year award winners, LeGates said: “I feel great for Melissa and Sara that they were the recipients of those awards. The future is very bright for both of them and we know they’ll both work hard to get even better.”

LeGates was named Coach of the Year for the fifth time, having been named previously in 2003, 2005, 2008 and 2010.

“I’d gladly give up all five of them to be playing in an NCAA tournament game,” he said. “I think this is the best our staff has ever worked together and I thank [assistant coach] Jess Gildea, [head trainer] Anna Sloan and [assistant trainer] Anthony Fortuna for all they did. The synergy we had was tremendous and it’s nice to see my peers in the conference recognize that.”

Saint Joseph is 14-2-2 overall and hopes to receive a bid to the ECAC tournament that begins Wednesday. The Blue Jays were the regular-season GNAC champions for the first time in school history and advanced to a GNAC tournament semifinal game for the fifth consecutive year.