Trinity graduates have WVU in Elite Eight
Former Trinity High School teammates Maggie Bedillion and Amanda Hill, who are currently teammates at West Virginia, each made the All-Big 12 Academic Soccer Team and have played key roles in helping the Mountaineers reach the Elite Eight of the NCAA tournament.
Hill, a senior midfielder who majors in exercise physiology/animal & nutritional sciences, earned the recognition with a 4.00-grade point average. She is one of four Big XII players with a 4.00 GPA.
Bedillion, an exercise physiology major, also was named to the first team.
Hill and Bedillion helped West Virginia defeat Duquesne 4-0 in the first round of the NCAA tournament. Bedillion assisted on two of the Mountaineers’ goals and had one shot on goal. Hill also had one shot on goal.
West Virginia defeated Northwestern, 4-0, in the second round and Loyola-Marymount, 5-2, in the third round. Hill scored a goal, her fifth of the season, in the win over Northwestern. The Mountaineers will play Saturday at Penn State in the Elite Eight.
Duquesne’s Kyra Murphy, a freshman goalkeeper from Canonsburg, was named to the Atlantic 10 Conference All-Rookie Team.
A Canon-McMillan graduate, Murphy tied the Duquesne record for most wins in a regular season with eight. It was the most wins for all Dukes goalkeepers since 2007. Murphy played in 17 games and had five shutouts.
Duquesne, as the No. 7 seed, won the Atlantic 10 tournament championship for its first women’s soccer conference title. The Dukes lost to West Virginia in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
After she was inserted into the starting lineup at midseason, Erin Ritzer helped Robert Morris make a surge in the second half of the year and finished as the Colonials’ second-leading scorer.
A junior midfielder from Scenery Hill and a Bentworth graduate, Ritzer scored five goals and three assists for 13 points. She played in 20 games, making 12 starts, and was a pivotal player as Robert Morris won nine of its last 15 games and finished with a 10-11 record. The Colonials were 5-3 in the Northeast Conference and advanced to the NEC championship game.
Ritzer had a pair of three-point games, against St. Francis (Pa.) and Scared Heart.
Edinboro’s Addy Gillespie, a freshman from Canonsburg, was named to the All-PSAC third team at the defense position.
Gillespie helped Edinboro advance to the PSAC championship match for the first time and qualify for the NCAA Division II tournament.
With Gillespie on the back line, Edinboro recorded six shutouts and held opponents to only 23 goals during the regular season. Gillespie has played in 21 games and started 19.
Lauren Waller, a freshman from Canonsburg, shot the lowest round of the season for Penn State’s women’s team when she carded a 4-under par 68 in the final round of the Landfall Tradition in Wilmington, N.C. Waller’s round included four birdies and zero bogeys and helped her finish in ninth place in the overall standings of the three-day event at one-under par.
Garrett Vulcano led West Liberty’s defense in tackles this season.
A junior linebacker from Houston and a Chartiers-Houston graduate, Vulcan made 84 tackles, including 12 for loss, and also recovered a blocked punt for a touchdown.
Vulcano made a season-high 14 tackles, including four behind the line of scrimmage, last Saturday in the Hilltoppers’ 42-36 win over West Virginia State.
Zach Barnes, a junior defensive lineman from Washington, finished eighth in tackles for West Liberty. A Washington graduate, Barnes finished the season with 39 tackles that included 7½ for loss and one quarterback sack.
Barnes had a pair of seven-tackle games, against McKendree (Ill.) Sept. 12 and Glenville State Nov. 5.
Rhamir Thomas, a redshirt sophomore linebacker, was the third-leading tackler for Lincoln University.
A Washington graduate, Thomas made 51 tackles, including 40 solo stops. His four tackles behind the line of scrimmage included one sack.
Lacey Levers, a junior at Duquesne and a Chartiers-Houston graduate, was named second team All-Atlantic 10 Conference.
Levers set a career-high with 292 kills. Her hitting percentage of .321 ranked 7th in the A-10.
It is the second A-10 postseason honor for Levers, who was named to the All-Rookie team in 2013.
• Kelly Slates, a senior libero for La Roche, was named first team All-Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference.
A McDonald native and Fort Cherry graduate, Slates ranked sixth in NCAA Division III in digs with 532 (6.41 per set) while leading the conference in the same category. Slates finished her career among the school’s all-time leaders in digs. She helped the Redhawks to a 16-13 record and a berth in the AMCC semifinals.
West Liberty senior forward Mike Lamberti’s basket with 29 seconds remaining in overtime broke a tie score and sent the undefeated Hilltoppers to a 106-103 victory over Mountain East Conference opponent Notre Dame (Ohio) last Saturday.
A former Observer-Reporter Player of the Year while at South Fayette, Lamberti made a basket that broke a 103-103 tie. He scored 12 points in the game.
Lamberti is averaging 8.0 points per game for the Hilltoppers (2-0, 5-0) and is shooting 60 percent from the field.
Brothers Gus and Francis Mizia helped Mercyhurst open the season by winning the team title at the Mount Union Invitational.
Gus Mizia, a redshirt senior, and Francis, a redshirt junior, won individual titles at the tournament. The Mizia brothers are from Bentleyville and were standouts in high school at Bentworth.
Competing at 174 pounds, Gus Mizia won all four of his bouts, including an 18-2 technical fall over Christopher Matthews of Gannon in the finals. Francis Mizia won the 165-pound title with a 4-0 decision over teammate Anthony Bortoluzzi in the championship bout.
• Redshirt sophomore Cody Wiercioch placed third in the 165-pound weight class to help Pitt win the team title last weekend at the 12-team Keystone Classic held at The Palestra in Philadelphia.
Wiercioch, a multiple-time state champion while at Canon-McMillan and Charleroi, won his first two bouts of the tournament before dropping a 10-6 decision to top-seeded Connor Brennan of Rider. Wiercioch then won three times in the consolation bracket, including a 3-1 sudden victory decision over Dakota Juarez of Eastern Michigan in the third-place bout.
Wiercioch has an 8-2 record on the season.
• Derrick Evanovich, a junior from Venetia and a Peters Township graduate, has a 4-2 record wrestling at 165 and 174 pounds for Maryland.
• Dalton Macri, a freshman from Canon-McMillan, helped Cornell win its fourth consecutive New York State title earlier this month in Ithaca, N.Y.
Macri, wrestling at 125 pounds, advanced to the championship round. He scored 19 team points for the Big Red with falls over opponents from Long Island-Post and Brockport State, and 14-7 decision win over an opponent from Binghamton in the quarterfinals.
Macri finished in second place after Kyle Akins was awarded a medical forfeit in the championship round.
Macri was in Cornell’s starting lineup when the Big Red opened the season with a 37-3 victory over Drexel. Macri won a 3-2 decision over Zack Fuentes.