February 5, 2009

SOFTBALL GETS READY TO KICK-OFF INAUGURAL DIVISION I SEASON AT CENTENARY TOURNAMENT FRIDAY IN LOUISIANA

With snow still on the ground in Rhode Island, the Bryant softball team will head to Shreveport, Louisiana this weekend to take part in the Centenary Tournament a begin its first Division I season. After completing its first 30-win season in the history of the program, Bulldogs begin their journey into Division I play in 2009, as the Bulldogs prepare to become full members of the Northeast Conference in the 2013 season.

The move does not come without great success at the Division II level, including five-straight trips to the NCAA Northeast regionals, two Northeast-10 Conference championships, three conference Players of the Year and one conference Pitcher of the Year. Head coach Lisa-Ann Wallace believes that her squad is up for the challenge.

"It's a tremendous opportunity for our student-athletes to compete at the highest level," said Wallace. "I'm extremely confident that our team will play hard and compete in every game."

The Bulldogs are in good hands with Wallace at the helm, as she enters her ninth season as and is the all-time winningest coach in school history with 194 wins. She also owns the best all-time winning percentage (.532).

Other challenges also loom on the horizon, including replacing the 2008 Northeast-10 Conference Pitcher of the Year, Janine Enos, who won a school-record 20 games last season while also boasting the second-best ERA in school history and most all-time wins. The Bulldogs will also have to replace starters Jess Valentini and Jenn Serrano, who were staples of the Bryant infield for the past four years. Valentini ranks among the top-10 all-time in batting average, hits, total bases, RBI and home runs, while Serrano started 107 games at second base and ranks ninth all-time in doubles.

But the Bulldogs will return much experience from last year's squad, with seven positional starters coming back to go along four players off the bench and five new freshmen. The group has a very solid base as they play a difficult schedule that includes three tournaments to start the season and 10 road games on top of that. Bryant will play some of the best teams in the region, including Boston College, Harvard, the University of Rhode Island, the University of Connecticut and Brown, while also taking on future Northeast Conference foes.

Pitchers
Top returning pitcher Samantha Houseal (Mount Joy, Pa.) will look to build on her success as a freshman, as she won 10 games in 2008 for the Black and Gold. As the number two pitcher, Houseal finished last year with an ERA of 2.56 and a 10-9 record, ranking her 7^th for most wins in a season and 10^th already in career wins. She is also in the top-10 for innings pitched in a season with 136.2 and eighth in strikeouts in a season with 79.

Newcomer Stephanie Barrett (Plaistow, N.H.) will be very important to the Bulldogs this season and will be act as the number two pitcher behind Houseal. Coming from Timberlane Regional High School in New Hampshire, Barrett helped her squad win a state title in 2008 while being named Class L Player of the Year. A member of the 2008 New Hampshire all-state team, Stephanie also participated in two all-star games.

Joining Houseal as a returner is sophomore Renee Chapman (Faifax, Calif.) who made three appearances last year, allowing four hits and two runs.

Infield
Junior shortstop Ali Chouinard (Swansea, Mass.) will anchor the Bryant infield as she has done for the last two seasons. A stellar defensive player, Chouinard has committed just 21 errors in 346 chances (.943 fielding percentage). As golden as she has been with the glove, the Swansea, Mass. native is even better with the bat, ranking third all-time at Bryant with 10 career home runs to go along with a .288 career batting average and a .463 slugging percentage.

Also returning will be first baseman Anne Dobmeier (Buffalo, N.Y.), who started 45 games last season for the Bulldogs, finishing second on the team with a .322 batting average while driving in 18 runs and committing just six errors all season.

Looking to replace the voids left at the second and third base positions will be freshman second baseman Laura Bowen (Hudson, Mass.) and junior third baseman Kim Leonard (Milford, Mass.). Bowen went to three state championships while playing her high school ball at Hudson High School in Massachusetts, winning the state title in 2007. She was a four-time league all-star and was named league MVP her senior year. Leonard returns to Bryant after taking a year off to study in Miami. As a freshman in 2007, Leonard appeared in 11 games while starting seven, collecting two hits and making seven putouts without an error in the outfield. She will look to make the switch to third this season.

Junior Elizabeth Roy (Manchester, N.H.) will also be returning to the Bulldogs after appearing in 20 games off the bench as a sophomore in 2008. Roy is invaluable to the team as a utility player, as she has the ability to play outfield, catcher and third base.

Freshman Allia Afifi (Yorktown Heights, N.Y.) will also be looking to crack the lineup at third, coming to the Bulldogs from Yorktown High School in New York where she was all-league honorable mention as a senior. Afifi will also be used as a third-string catcher.

Outfield
The Bulldogs bring back their entire starting outfield from a year ago in senior Kate Thomas (Bedford, N.H.), junior Kim Breton (Leominster, Mass.) and sophomore Regina Burdo (Wayne, Pa.), to go along with senior captain Stephanie Mirando (North Haven, Conn.) who spent the majority of her time last season as the designated player due to a broken bone in her hand.

Thomas, a third-team all-Northeast-10 player last season, led the team with a .325 batting average and finished second on the team in slugging percentage (.553), RBI (19) and home runs (4). She finished first in the conference in triples with six, while also finishing seventh in walks with 19.

Breton started all 46 games in the outfield in 2008, leading all outfielders with eight assists on the year. Kim Breton finished the year with a .217 batting average, driving in seven runs and leading the team with five stolen bases.

Burdo started 42 games a year ago as a freshman outfielder, ranking second on the team with nine sacrifice hits while scoring 16 runs. A solid defensive player, Burdo committed just three errors all year, good for a .930 fielding percentage.

Possibly the best contact hitter on the team, Mirando led the Bulldogs with 10 sacrifice hits while also finishing with a team-low 12 strikeouts in 127 at-bats. Her 10 sacrifice bunts tied her for fifth in the conference. Mirando also finished third on the team with 24 RBI and will see time defensively in the outfield this season as well.

Adding more depth to an already solid outfield will be returning sophomore Jenna Jeffrey (Scarborough, Maine) who appeared in 22 games in 2008, tallying three runs scored. Freshmen Lauren McCart (Voorhees, N.J.) and Lindsay Martin (Methuen, Mass.) will also be looking for playing time in the outfield spots.

Martin, who will contend for a starting spot this season, was named MVP of her team at Central Catholic in Methuen, Mass. her senior season. She was a Boston Herald All-Scholastic selection in 2008 while participating in the MVC all-star game her junior and senior seasons.

Catchers
Second-year captain Ashley Coon (Levittown, Pa.) will call the shots behind the plate for her third-straight year as a starter. The junior has started 86 games behind the dish in her first two seasons, committing just nine errors while registering 44 assists. In 2008, she finished fifth on the team with a .303 batting average while driving in 11 runs on 33 hits.

Returning to back up Coon will be sophomore Kristina Kyzer (Boxboro, Mass.), who started four games last season while appearing in five. Kyzer threw out two runners attempting to steal last season while surrendering just one passed ball.

The Bulldogs will open up their season on Friday, February 6 as they travel to Shreveport, Louisiana for the Centenary Tournament where they will take on SIU-Edwardsville in their first Division I contest at 11:30 a.m. Over the weekend Bryant will also play Nichols State, Missouri State, Centenary and Boston College.