Crusader Nation

2 Crusader Nation • Fall 2015 AD's Corner Dear Friends, This is the best time of the year, the countdown to the kick-off of the 2015-16 sports season. As we prepare for the year ahead, I would be remiss not to acknowledge and celebrate the very successful year we just completed. We had many milestones and continued our efforts to better provide an exceptional experience for our student- athletes representing the Purple and the Holy Cross community at large. This last year was a special one for me since it was my first full academic year at Holy Cross as your Director of Athletics. In 2014-15 our student-athletes continued to achieve at exceptional levels in the class- room as we tied for first in the nation with a Graduation Success Rate of 99 percent, while 20 different squads posted a perfect 100 percent GSR. Additionally, 12 teams received NCAA Division I Academic Progress Rate public recognition awards (given to the top 10 percent of teams in their respective sport in the country), placing us in the top 5 percent of all Division I schools in the nation. In total, we had 312 student-ath- letes recognized on the Patriot League Academic Honor Roll during the school year. Competitively, many teams had banner seasons in 2014-15. The men's rowing varsity eight recorded its best season in school history, finishing the season ranked No. 17 in the nation! Men's lacrosse saw significant improvement under first-year Head Coach Judd Lattimore, earning a national ranking after beating top 10 Loyola and Army dur- ing the season for the first time in program history. Women's ice hockey had an out- standing year, winning the lone conference championship for Holy Cross in 2014-15. The team finished 18-7-3 and won the ECAC Open Tournament title. Women's soccer also made impressive strides finishing the season 10-5-3 (most program victories since 2000). The women's basketball team finished in third place in the Patriot League with an 11-7 mark in conference games, and defeated Boston College for the first time since 1997. In aggregate, Holy Cross had its most successful season since joining the Patriot League 25 years ago, finishing seventh in the League's President's Cup stand- ings and scoring the most points ever toward the Cup. The past year also saw the introduction of a few new head coaches at Holy Cross, including Bill Carmody in men's basketball. Coach Carmody comes to Holy Cross with 32 years of impressive Division I coaching experience, including 17 seasons as the head coach at Northwestern and Princeton. We also welcomed Lindsay Jackson in field hockey (on the cover), who built an impressive program at Limestone College from a start-up into a perennial Division II powerhouse. More recently, in men's rowing we promoted James Barr from interim head coach to full-time head coach after he previously served as the assistant for two seasons. Melissa Batie-Smoose took over the volleyball program, joining us from Cornell where she was the head volleyball coach and bringing with her more than 20 years of experi- ence. In women's lacrosse we introduced Amanda Belichick in July; she came to us from Wesleyan where she served as the head coach for the past two seasons and, be- fore that, had assistant stops at Ohio State and UMass. Finally, in women's golf we wel- comed back to campus Tim Bibaud '81. Coach Bibaud spent the previous 21 seasons as the head coach of men's golf at Assumption College where he led the Greyhounds to five NCAA regional appearances. Finally, the Crusader Athletics Fund had another record-breaking year totaling $1.4 million in support of our student-athletes. Many of the athletics accomplishments this past year were made possible by your generosity to CAF. I look forward to seeing you at a competition very soon. Until then, follow all of the action on our redesigned website: www.goholycross.com. Go Crusaders! Nathan Pine Director of Athletics In This Issue 3 COACHeS' Club 7 new head coaches 6 Paying it Forward Marie (Golden) DiPalma '02 7 Student Spotlight Dennis Muldoon '16, Cross Country/Track & Field 8 Rise Together CAF Donors & John Luth '74 11 10 THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT... Egetta (Schumski) Alfonso '92 Jeff Oliver 12 Catching Up WITH CRUSADERS Sean O'Neil '76, Soccer 13 Calendar Sports schedules 14 What I was Thinking Sean Gustin '16, Baseball 16 Why I Give Crusader Nation Produced by the Office of Advancement, Department of Athletics and the Office of College Marketing and Communications D E S I G N E R Michael Grinley P H O T O G R A P H E R S Mark Hasprzk, Gil Talbot, Tom Rettig, Ellen Dubin, Dan Vaillancourt, Holy Cross Athletics C R U S A D E R N A T I O N Office of Advancement College of the Holy Cross One College Street Worcester, MA 01610 Phone: 508-793-2415 Email: crusaderathletics@holycross.edu Website: GoHolyCross.com

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