Top Athletes: Chris Phillis, an All-America football player, and Amy Di Micco, a Regional All-America field hockey standout, are the University at Albany’s 2001-02 male and female athletes of the year. Phillis, a senior split end, was named to the Football Gazette Division I-AA Mid-Major All-America squad for the second straight season. He caught 42 passes for 609 yards and six touchdowns in leading his team to a 7-3 record. Di Micco, a senior midfielder, was voted to the National Field Hockey Coaches Association All-Mideast Region All-America second team, and played in the NFHCA Division I North-South Senior All-Star Game.

Merit Medals: Eddie Scott and Amy Di Micco were honored with ECAC Merit Medals as the University’s top senior male and female student-athletes. Scott, a Verizon third-team national Academic All-American in baseball, posted a 3.65 cumulative grade point average in psychology with a minor in sociology. Di Micco, an All-America East Conference selection in field hockey, had a 3.82 GPA in communication with a minor in business administration.

Men’s Lacrosse: UAlbany made huge strides under Scott Marr, the 2002 America East Conference Coach of the Year. The Great Danes, who improved from a 3-8 record one year ago to 9-7 overall, won the America East regular-season title and were one win from the program’s first NCAA Tournament berth. Senior Chris Zaffiro, a first-team all-conference choice, led a defense that was ranked eighth nationally in “scoring against” at 8.06 goals per game. Kevin Rae, Luke Daquino and Jon Smith also made the All-America East squad. Rae, a freshman goalkeeper, was voted the America East Rookie of the Year with a .630 save percentage.

Baseball: Mike Grasso and Eddie Scott were among a group of four players who were named to the All-America East Conference baseball squad. Grasso, who was taken by the Atlanta Braves in the June draft, batted .344 in the leadoff spot and set a single-season record with 28 stolen bases. Scott, a senior center fielder, hit .339 with 38 runs and 27 RBI. Right fielder Tony Vallone and pitcher Steve Emmerthal were second-team all-conference members.

Softball: The Great Danes finished with a 30-20 record and qualified for the America East Conference Tournament. Shortstop Valerie Terry earned second-team all-conference honors. Terry, a four-year starter, batted .306 with 29 runs and 35 stolen bases. She finished her career as the school’s all-time leader in hits (198), runs (148) and stolen bases (129).

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Women’s Lacrosse: UAlbany placed five athletes on the America East Conference all-star unit. The Great Danes reached the conference’s post-season tournament as the No. 3 seed. Attacker Andrea Esposito and defender Allison Beagle were first-team selections. Maria Ferrucci, Theresa Masse and Liz Adamo were voted to the second team by the league’s coaches. Ferrucci, who is second on the school’s career chart with 124 goals, and Masse were members of the IWLCA National Academic Team.

Men’s Outdoor Track: Freshman Kristof Molnar won the 800-meter run and Alix Rodriques anchored the 4x100 relay to victory at the America East Conference Championships. Molnar, who also won the indoor 800 crown, raced to the finish line in 1:55.53. Adam Rice (3,000-steeplechase) and Andy Allstadt (10,000) also grabbed individual America East titles as the Great Danes placed second in the team standings.

Women’s Outdoor Track: Tammy Freeman became the first UAlbany woman to capture an America East Conference championship by winning the 400-meter hurdles in 1:03.96. Nierria Jones set a school record in the triple jump with a leap of 38-feet, 0.75-inches to finish second, and was third in the 100-hurdles in 15.37 seconds.

Women’s Tennis: Violeta Petijevic led the Great Danes with seven singles victories and four wins in doubles play. UAlbany competed at the America East Conference Championships for the first time.

he will to set extremely high standards, unparalleled University support and total commitment by his players are the three simple ingredients second-year University at Albany head lacrosse coach Scott Marr used to convert the Great Danes into America East Conference regular-season champions. The unlikely turn of events placed the upstart Great Danes just a couple of goals short of capturing the program’s first NCAA tournament berth and the first NCAA appearance of any kind for the University at the Division I level.

Although the Great Danes lost the America East Conference tournament championship game, 8-6, to old SUNYAC rival Stony Brook last May 4, their achievements set the standard the University expects to eventually embrace for all of its athletic programs. Without sacrificing academic excellence, the UAlbany lacrosse program recruited some of the most outstanding student-athletes available. They faced some of the best teams in the nation last spring in a grueling non-league schedule, and they accepted a work ethic that raised the bar for other University athletic teams.

Head Coach Scott Marr, left, talks strategy with assistants John Svec, center, and Brian Van Derlofske.

Rugged, intimidating defense was the heart and soul of the Great Danes, who were ranked 8th in the nation (8.06 goals per game) in goals allowed. Tough and physical defenders like senior Chris Zaffiro and junior midfielder Emil Bove, who carries a 4.0 grade point average, set the tone for the team that became one of the hardest-hitting in the region. Sharp shooters like freshman attacker Luke Daquino and junior attacker Chris Driscoll paced an opportunistic offense for a youthful club that carried 24 freshmen or sophomores and only two seniors on its roster.

The success story all started with the signing of a lacrosse coach who has a vision. “I heard a lot of good things about this school overall, especially academically,” said Marr, who played on a national championship team while at Johns Hopkins in 1987. “I was told that Albany was a sleeping giant in terms of lacrosse, because of its location, its excellent in-state tuition and its outstanding academics. I’ve been recruiting for 11 years now, both at the University of Delaware and at the University of Maryland, and both of those schools always looked to New York for their players. Central New York, Long Island and Westchester County have always been hotbeds for the game of lacrosse, so I knew I could get the players here.”

One reason Marr took the job was that he had a support system in place. “One of the things I liked was that Gail Cummings-Danson really understands lacrosse,” said Marr of UAlbany’s associate athletic director, who was an All-America lacrosse player herself at Temple and later coached the UAlbany women’s lacrosse team from 1994 to 1996. “She understands the capability that we do have here to upgrade this program, and she knows what it takes to succeed.”

The 2002 team compiled an 8-6 record and won the America East regular-season championship.

Marr immediately recruited and signed some of the premier scholastic players in the state, including several, like goalie Kevin Rae, who was named the America East Conference’s Rookie of the Year, from perennial high school powerhouse Yorktown. It wasn’t that difficult to convince the young players that Albany had plenty to offer. “You have to sell the kids on education and what they get when they graduate,” said Marr, the America East Conference’s Coach of the Year.

Setting goals was another Marr priority. “Our long-range goal is to win a national championship, but our short-range goal was to get into the top four in our league, and hopefully in the top two, so that we could have home field advantage for the playoffs,” said Marr, whose team won the league regular-season title with a 5-0 record and finished 9-7 overall. “Our goals went up each game as we got better and better. Eventually, we earned the top seed.”

Marr, center, with MVPs Aaron Elleby, left, and Chris Zaffiro, show off the America East Conference trophy.

In Marr’s first season, the Great Danes compiled a mediocre 3-8 record, but the young coach figured that a more demanding schedule would toughen up his team. “One of the reasons we were able to bring in better players was that we told them some of the teams that would be on our schedule,” said Marr. “I upgraded our schedule. We played the No. 1 team in the country in Johns Hopkins, and we also played other nationally ranked teams like Yale. It was a learning experience. Our young men accepted our system of playing as a team, and went out and performed.”

Everyone associated with the program realized that this season was something special, but maybe only the beginning of even greater things in the future. “Playing in the America East Conference tournament was huge for our program,” offered Rae. “Coach Marr has turned our team around, and it’s going to be even easier to recruit next year.”
Marr was teary-eyed after his team lost the championship game, but he didn’t stay that way for long. “It was disappointing to lose the championship, but hopefully we can carry that experience with us into next season,” he said. “No one expected us to be here, and we proved them all wrong. We’ll be back.”