Sports Talk
By Brian DePasquale
2001 Football Schedule Announced
Director of Athletics and Recreation Lee McElroy unveiled the University at Albany’s 2001 football schedule on Feb. 20. The Great Danes will play an eight-game Northeast Conference slate, and meet non-conference opponents Towson, Canisius, and Florida Atlantic.

The Great Danes begin their 29th season on Saturday, Sept. 1, with Patriot League foe Towson at University Field. This is the second meeting with the Maryland-based school, but the first since 1978. The Tigers have recorded back-to-back 7-4 campaigns over the last two seasons.

Albany concludes its 11-game schedule at Florida Atlantic on Nov. 17. The season finale will be played in Pro Player Stadium, the facility used by the NFL’s Miami Dolphins and the FedEx Orange Bowl. Howard Schnellenberger, who led Miami (Fla.) to the 1983 national title, and has also coached at Louisville and Oklahoma, is the head coach of the first-year Division I-AA program. The Great Danes will travel to Canisius, of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, on Oct. 6.

In addition to the opener against Towson, the home schedule features defending NEC champion Robert Morris on Nov. 10. The Colonials posted a perfect 10-0 record en route to the conference title in 2000. Sacred Heart, the NEC runner-up with a 10-1 mark, will be the opponent for Homecoming and Family Weekend on Oct. 20. Hall of Fame Day is set for Sept. 29 versus Stony Brook.

Albany finished 5-6 overall last fall, and was fourth in the NEC standings with a 5-3 record. Head coach Bob Ford has nine starters back on defense, including first-team all-conference linebacker Josh Bazan. Tailback Brian Manigault, who broke the school’s single-season rushing record, and Chris Phillis, the team’s top receiver, lead a group of eight returning starters on offense.

Two School Records Fall at IC4A/ECAC Track Meet
UAlbany’s Ronald Edmundson finished eighth in the triple jump with a school-record effort at the IC4A/ECAC Indoor Track and Field Championship on March 4 at the Reggie Lewis Center in Boston.

Edmundson, a senior, leaped 48-feet, 00.50-inches to break a record he previously established at the 1998 New England Collegiate Conference championships. George Mason’s Allen Simms won the competition with a mark of 51-11.

In the women’s ECAC 4x800-relay event, the Great Danes were seventh in 9:12.62 behind champion Pittsburgh (8:49.38). Freshman Jessica Walton helped Albany set a school record in qualifying with a time of 9:08.42. Walton, who ran a leadoff leg of 2:16.2, Diane Matthews, Jessica Burger and Megan Roeder shaved more than 13 seconds off the previous UAlbany standard.

Jamie Rodriguez, the Great Danes’ top cross-country runner in the fall, placed ninth in the men’s 5,000-meter run, and was clocked in a season-best 14:35.58. Sophomore Alix Rodriques tied for sixth in the 60-meter dash semifinals, and did not qualify for the final.

Baseball
Brad Rea and Darrin Lenhart each homered and drove in four runs to lead Pittsburgh to a 21-10 victory over Albany on March 3 at Homestead Sports Complex in Homestead, Fla.

Pittsburgh led 7-6 in the third inning, but then exploded with a six-run frame. Rea, a 6-foot-4, 250-pound All-Big East Conference first baseman, singled to drive in a pair of runs, before Lenhart belted a two-run homer. Rea added another two-run blast when the Panthers scored eight times in the fifth.

Senior outfielder Steve Checksfield led UAlbany (1-6) with four RBI, as he hit his second home run of the season in the fourth, and added RBI singles in the first and second. Center fielder Michael Oliva tripled, walked, and scored twice.

Earlier in the week, the Great Danes posted a 13-7 win over Adrian. UAlbany rallied from a 4-1 deficit in the fifth inning with a five-run frame. Mike Kuebler knocked in the go-ahead run with a double, and later scored on Michael Tecklenburg’s single.

Leading 8-6 in the eighth, UAlbany put the game away with another five-run inning. Checksfield, who had three hits and drove in three runs, had an RBI triple. Pitcher Craig Straus, who worked out of a bases-loaded jam in the seventh, earned the save in relief of starter Mike Burke.

Softball
Lynnette Bohannan singled twice, doubled, and drove in two runs to lead UAlbany to a 7-0 victory over Clarion on March 1, at Lee County Sports Complex in Fort Myers, Fla. The Great Danes completed their Florida trip with a 3-8 record.

Bohannon, a junior catcher, lined a two-run single, as Albany scored four times in its first at-bat. Stephanie Strauss added a sacrifice fly in the frame. Shortstop Valerie Terry singled, doubled, and scored a pair of runs to help pace the Albany attack. Freshman Jessica Kostenblatt belted a solo home run in the sixth.

Right-hander Sarah Maida picked up her first victory this spring. She struck out nine and walked three in posting her fifth career shutout.

Women’s Basketball
Liz Tucker has been voted to the Verizon University Division District I Academic All-America Women’s Basketball Team Tucker, a second-team selection, has a 3.55 cumulative grade point average in psychology.

Tucker, a 5-foot-10 senior, led the Great Danes in scoring (13.0 ppg), rebounding (6.4 pg), assists (3.1 pg) and steals (1.9 pg) this season. She finished her career ranked third on the school’s all-time scoring list with 1,188 points.

Tucker and Dawn DiMicco, the team’s senior co-captains, were honored in a pre-game ceremony prior to the season finale with Bucknell Feb. 24. Bucknell registered an 80-64 victory, as Albany finished its second NCAA Division I campaign with a 5-22 record.

Men’s Basketball
UAlbany completed its schedule with a 70-58 loss to Delaware State Feb. 28. The Great Danes, who were 6-22 overall, move to the America East Conference in 2001-02. In basketball, Albany will compete in the South Division with Delaware, Drexel, Hartford, Stony Brook and Towson. The North Division includes: Boston U., Hofstra, Maine, New Hampshire, Northeastern and Vermont.

Senior forward Will Brand, who has made 84 consecutive starts as a collegian, climbed to 15th on the all-time scoring list with 1,118 points. Brand was recognized prior to the Delaware State contest for becoming the 24th player in school history to score 1,000 career points.

E.J. Gallup, a 6-foot-4 guard, led Albany in scoring with a 17.4 average. Gallup’s 487 points was the highest total by a freshman since 1955-56, and the 11th-best single-season mark overall. His 93 three-point field goals were one off Matthew’s Haggarty season standard.

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