SPORTS TALK

 Men's Basketball
    Senior guard Todd Cetnar scored 19 points, including a key three-point field goal with 1:53 remaining, as Albany won its third straight with a 68-59 victory over Dartmouth on Jan. 29 at the Recreation and Convocation Center. Dartmouth (4-13) trailed most of the contest, but rallied to grab a 44-43 lead on a fastbreak layup by Greg Buth, who scored a team-high 16 points.  Albany (7-13) followed with five straight points to regain the lead for good.  Will Brand and Dave Schloss converted consecutive baskets in transition for a 48-44 advantage with 9:04 remaining. 
    The Big Green, who later trailed by as much as seven points, closed within 59-57 on Buth's three-point field goal with 3:07 left.  Cetnar, who added eight assists, then canned one of his four 3-pointers with the shot clock winding down, and split a pair of free throws to build his team's lead to 63-57. 
    Albany used the free throw line to hold its cushion in the final minute, and won for the fourth time in its last five starts.  Brand finished with 18 points, one off his season-high, and grabbed eight rebounds.  Matthew Haggarty was the third Great Dane in double figures with 10. 
    Sophomore guard Flinder Boyd had 15 points and nine assists for the Big Green, who suffered their eighth straight loss.  Shaun Gee, the team's leading-scorer this season with a 19.3 average, was held to 10.

Women's Basketball
Laela Sturdy had 17 points and 11 rebounds, and Kelley Bree added 16,as Harvard came from behind in the second half for a 68-57 victory over Albany at Lavietes Pavilion last Saturday.
Albany (5-14) fought back from a 32-23 halftime deficit with an 18-2 run to open the final period.  Megan Buchanan, who had 15 of her 26 points in the second half, buried a three-point shot to give her team its first lead at 37-34.  Melissa Schoonover's layup handed 
the Great Danes a 41-34 advantage with 10:56 to play. Harvard (10-5) responded with 18 consecutive points to take 
control.  Junior forward Melissa Johnson, who had all eight of her points in the decisive run, hit a layup to put the Crimson ahead to stay at 42-41.  Johnson, who added nine rebounds, later finished off a fastbreak for a 50-41 lead with 5:43 remaining. Harvard's Courtney Egelhoff and Jenn Monti added 16 and 10 points, respectively.  Freshman Jess McGinlay was the only other Albany player in twin figures with a season-high 12.
Buchanan, a 5-foot-11 senior from Arkport, N.Y., became the fifth player in school history to reach the 1,000-point mark.  She has 1,003 overall for her career.

Men's Soccer
    Johan Aarnio was announced as head men's soccer coach on Friday, Jan. 28.  Aarnio, who has coached on the collegiate and professional level for nearly 20 years, will move into a position that was 
recently elevated to full-time status. 
    Aarnio served as head soccer coach for men and women at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute from 1992-97.  He guided the men's program to a pair of NCAA Division III Tournament appearances.  His 1996 team posted a 14-3 record and won the Upstate Collegiate Athletic Association championship. When Aarnio was women's head coach, the Redhawks were a combined 32-12-3 over a three-year period, and captured the '96 ECAC Mid-Atlantic title with a 16-1 record. In the professional ranks, Aarnio was the head coach and director of team operations for the Milwaukee Wave in the National Professional Soccer League (NPSL) from 1990-92.  He led Milwaukee to one division crown, and coached in the 1991 NPSL All-Star Game. 
    Aarnio also served as head coach of the NPSL's Montreal Impact in 1997.  In addition, he was a part of six professional championships, including four consecutive Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL) titles, as an assistant coach with the San Diego Shockers during the 1980s.   Aarnio, 46, earned a bachelor of science in marketing from San        Diego State University, where he was a two-year varsity midfielder for the Aztecs.  He received his "A" coaching license from the United States Soccer Federation, and recently worked as a part-time assistant with the Albany men's soccer program. 
    Aarnio replaces Roy Pfeil who stepped down after nine years as Albany's coach.  Pfeil had an 81-61-15 record and led the Great Danes through a transition from the Division III and Division II level to its current Division I status.  The soccer program became a varsity sport in 1950, and will join the newly-formed Atlantic Soccer Conference next fall.

Athletic Hiring
    Interim Director of Athletics Gail Cummings-Danson recently announced the hiring of Eileen Pfeiffer as director of athletic development.  Pfeiffer will head the advancement initiatives designed to provide operational and capital support for the University's intercollegiate athletics program. 
    Pfeiffer, who will have additional duties with respect to external affairs and special events planning, was recently the director of planned giving and research at The College of Saint Rose. She implemented the College's charitable gift annuity program, and met its two-year goal in less than one year.  Pfeiffer also increased membership in the planned giving recognition society by forty percent. 
    A native of Albany, Pfeiffer has been an associate in the Law Offices of E. David Duncan, where she concentrated in the field of insurance defense.  In addition, she was a sole practitioner from 1994-96, and handled trusts and estates law, probate and residential real estate.  She also worked as an associate with Dreyer, Boyajian & Tuttle for nearly two years. 
    Pfeiffer, 39, earned a bachelor of science from Cornell University, where she was a four-year member of the basketball team from 1979-83, and currently ranks 14th on the all-time scoring list.  She received her Juris Doctor from Albany Law School of Union University in 1992. 
    Pfeiffer, who was a two-sport athlete in basketball and volleyball at Albany High School, is on the board of directors for New York State Special Olympics.  She holds memberships with the New York State Bar Association, Gift Planning Group of Northeastern New York and National Society of Fund Raising Executives.

Track & Field
    Andrea Viger set a school record in the 3,000-meter run at Manhattan College's Jasper Invitational on Saturday at the Armory Track & Field Center.  Viger, who finished second in the event, was timed in 10:10.53, and eclipsed Tonya Dodge's 1997 record by 23-hundredths of a second.  Dodge, who like Viger is a native of Granville, N.Y., is currently a graduate assistant coach. Erica Viger, Andrea's twin sister, placed second in the 1,000, and posted the second-best performance in school annals with a time of 3:04.07.  In the men's competition, Luis Soto was second in the long jump with a mark of 23-feet, 2-inches, while Jamie Rodriguez was third in the 1,000.