Names like Amelia Pereira, Caitlin Alves, Erin Quinlan and many others will not boom out of the speakers on Al-Marzook field for the women’s soccer team this season. Graduation took many of last years’ starters that led the team to an America East championship loss to Stony Brook. Head coach John Natale still has a lot of talent to work with and bring the girls back to a championship.

Senior’s Arielle Aikens and Raelynn Mikell will be captaining this years’ campaign. Aikens, a forward, finished with 16 points, which included a career-best three in a 4-0 shutout of Holy Cross where she spotted a goal and an assist. She was also named to the America East Academic Honor Roll for the second straight season for achieving a grade point average that was higher than a 3.0. Mikell, who redshirted last year, will continue to be a big help on the back line. During 10 games, Mikell played in last year, the Hawks defense had four shutouts and only let up five goals. She also played the full game in eight of those 10 games. Like Aikens, Mikell was part of the America East Acadmeic Honor Roll.

This lady hawks team is very young, where there are currently 17 underclassmen, which includes four of the five goalies. Experience is always something to look at, but as long as the girls can keep their heads in the game and improve each day they are together then there should be no worries.

As of now, the team has a record of 1-0-2, which is a very promising record for such a young team. The lady hawks opened up against Bryant at home, where Natasha Douglas chipped in her and the team’s first goal of the season. Elise Galipo added her first point of the season with the assist on the Douglas goal. Junior transfer Alison Koerkenmeier, got the start in goal, and was the right choice as she didn’t allow a single goal and tallied up four goals.

After the win, the team went onto tie their next two games, which included a 0-0 tie at Saint Joseph’s and a 1-1 stalemate at Iona College. Aikens netted in her first goal in the Iona game in the 25 minute of the game as she broke through the defense and found the back of the net, which put the Hawks ahead. Two minutes after Chanel Johnson almost put the girls up two goals, the Gaels tied up the score at one, when senior Nicole Paulucci scored Iona’s first goal of 2013.

The Hawks will be back at the Zook as they take on state rival, Fairfield, tonight at 7 p.m.

SImms looks to have a stellar sophomore year. Brian Izzo | The Informer

After receiving the America East Rookie of the Year award last year, Javoni Simms looked to continue to dominate on the pitch in his sophomore campaign.

He would do just that as he headed a ball into the net from teammate Omar Tall in the 33 minute against Villanova.

Unfortunately, the Wildcats put in one of their own just 12 minutes later by Willis Griffith.

However, the Hawks were able to hold on for the tie and improved their record to 1-0-1.

Both teams came out hot on the offensive end with a combined 21 shots.

Hartford goalkeeper, Viltsu Tuumi, got the start in net, gaining three saves and letting in the lone Villanova goal.

Hartford’s goal came at the 32:10 mark, with touch passes from Juniors Rohan Roye and Omar Tall, who then placed the ball into the box where Simms was waiting for the ball and headed it into the net for the goal.

Tall, who was just brought into the game by third year coach, Tom Poitras, gained his second assist in two games after assisting the game-winning goal to David Bernhardsson last week against Holy Cross.

Hartford was looking like they were about to go into intermission with a 1-0 lead, but with 53 seconds left in the half, Adetomiwa Adewole of Villanova tracked down a rebound and found Griffith who then blazed in a shot past Tuumi to match the Hawks score as the teams went into the half.

The second half was a defensive showing with both teams combining for only 13 shots with freshman goalkeeper, David MacKinnon, making is debut in the half.

MacKinnon tallied up five saves, while allowing no goals in the rest of the period.

Hartford stayed strong for the two overtime periods, only allowing three shots with MacKinnon stopping all of them.

During overtime the Hawks out shot Villanova 7-4, which included a 4-0 edge during the first extra period.

Anthony Santaga led Hartford in shots with seven and two of the shots were headed for goal but were unfortunately stopped by the Wildcats keeper.

Simms and Bernhardsson were right behind him with six and four shots, respectively.

Santaga had the chance to end the game in the 92 and 99 minute of overtime, but Wildcat goalie, Andrew Weakly, stopped him which were just two of six saves in overtime.

The Hawks look to continue their unbeaten ways at home this Friday night when the Siena Saints come to play at 7 p.m.

Over the past few years the NFL has been doing as much as they can to keep players safe. Courtesy of Topnews360.tmcnet.com

This past week the NFL and more than 4,500 former athletes have come to an agreement of $765 million to help diagnose and compensate potentially hundred of retired players who may be suffering from dementia and other brain disorders they blame from the hard-hitting and bone-crushing action that we all have known and come to love.

These athletes that have sued the NFL have been suffering from dementia, depression, or have signs of Alzheimer’s such a short term memory.

Past NFL greats like Jamal Lewis and Jim McMahon have been seen interviews these past couple of years where they don’t even remember the question that was asked a few seconds ago.

Them and many other players have felt that these symptoms have come from playing in the NFL for a number of years and that the NFL was hiding these long-term dangers of concussions and players who were concussed were rushed back on the field to quickly without making sure they were fully recovered.

The settlement would cover all 18,000 former NFL players with most of the money going to help athletes with certain neurological aliments.

Those who have Alzheimer’s disease could get up to $5 million, $4 million for those diagnosed after their deaths with a brain condition called chronic traumatic encephalopathy and $3 million for players with dementia.

To most people, almost $800 million may seem like a lot of money, but when you look into where the money is actually going and how it is being used, it makes a lot more sense.

It has only been just recently when the NFL starting making more rules and handing out fines for dangerous plays and hits to the head.

Depending on how bad the hit is, the price will go up and if it’s really bad, that player may be suspended for a game or two.

But as many people will say, “that’s part of the game, the players know what they’re getting into, they’re getting paid to hit and get hit hard,” and the list goes on.

However, knowing that it’s such a dangerous sport, the NFL should have taken precautions from the very beginning.

Of course over time there have been improvements from better equipment to protect bodies from each other and many rules that make sure the players can be safe.

As everyone knows, when you have big, strong men running at each other as fast as they can, someone is bound to get hurt almost every play and it’s hard to make sure that each player doesn’t do something wrong and hurt someone.

But will settlements like these just stop at the professional level, or will they move to the college level.

There is a huge difference from college sports to professional sports, but concussions are common at every level, even high school, so does that mean player’s should start suing their high schools and colleges because they may have some short-term memory or other concussion symptoms.

It should be the goal of high school and college’s to make sure each athlete is using the correct form and does everything they can to make sure none of these accidents happen, but every once in a while a player puts his head to low or players heads collide and someone ends up with a concussion.

And not every player will report it because they don’t want to be taken out of their game, so it will not be looked at, and then if they receive another in a higher level in that sport it may create more problems because the first one was never looked at.

And now that Hartford has a football team this year, who is in charge of making sure that they don’t get hurt and end up with concussions. Who teaches them how to tackle properly, is their equipment up to date, do they have a doctor on staff, or do they use the school doctor?

These and other questions should always be asked when a full contact sport is starting up.

I’m sure the majority of the team has played some level of football in their past and have had proper training on how to hit and tackle.

It’s not just football that has to be worried about concussions, the lacrosse, rugby and even basketball teams at Hartford all have to worry about hits to the head and what could happen in their later years if they don’t take care of themselves.

So to all of the current Hartford athletes who put their bodies on the line for the school, we thank you, but we also want to make sure you stay safe and protect yourself.

If you think you have some kind of headache or don’t feel like you normally do, go get checked out and make sure everything’s ok because the last thing you need is to have problems past your playing career.

Collins will be a stepping stone for future gay athletes for many years. Brian Izzo | The Informer

This past week marked an historic moment in sports history. There wasn’t a record broken, a champion crowned, or a streak made. NBA player, Jason Collins decided that the time was right, and became the first male professional sports player to come out and say he was gay. Collins broke the news in a Sports Illustrated article that he wrote himself and was posted on the magazines website earlier this week.

What Collins did is just as good for professional sports as when Jackie Robinson became the first African-American to play in an all white baseball league. You may think that’s an absolutely ridiculous statement, but if you compare the two things at the time they were going on they are very similar.

Back when Robinson came into the league, people of color were not accepted at all, and no one wanted to be seen with them. They were also treated very poorly, and they were thought of to be a different race in some sense. Now take the phrase ‘people of color’, and replace it with ‘gay people’ and instead of the 60’s, look at today’s times. There really is not a big difference.

Collins has done so much for the gay community and sports as well. He has opened doors for current gay athletes not to be afraid to come out and tell the world that they are gay, and continue to be good at what they do. He also has showed kids who are struggling with their sexuality, not to be afraid of who they are, and they can continue to pursue their dreams.

This brings me to my next point. Collins is average, at best and was not really well known throughout the NBA before he came out. But what happens next when a big-time superstar comes out of the closet? What kind of exposure and impact will he have? How will the fans and sports community react to this? These and many more questions will have to be answered, but for now we will have to wait until that moment happens.

I’m not going to sit here and start rumors with who I think is in the closet and when they will, because that would just make me sound not smart and I’m not here to call out anybody. But, Collins is for sure not the only gay athlete currently playing in one of the four major North American sports. And with the positive outcome and major effects Collins is having on the sports world, you can bet that when a superstar comes out, it’s going to be crazy, in a good way of course.

Unfortunately, with all of the positive that will come, there will be negative feedback as well. And it hurts me when I see people try to be who they are, get shot down because they are seen as different, or because a 2400 year old book says it’s not ok.

Everyone is different, and if someone is gay, they should be accepted of that. This is probably one of the main reasons why many athletes have not come out. They are afraid what people will think of them and how they will be treated after they tell everyone who they have always been.

I’m sure a few of the questions going through those athletes’ heads are, what will people think of me, how will this affect my playing career, will I get released, will a team pick me up, will I not play, how will other players treat me in the locker room, will I have friends? There has to be a million questions going on in their heads, and they should have the right to think that. It’s ok to be afraid but, they should never be afraid to hide from who they are.

Jason Collins will hopefully be a starting point for all sports athletes to come and be happy with who they are and be able to anyone and everyone. No matter the sport, everyone should be treated equally, regardless of your sexual orientation. All that should matter is how you play the game.

For all athletes out there, whether it be professional, college, high school, or any other level, it’s ok to be who you are, and you should not let anyone tell you differently. You are an athlete and will always be an athlete. You’re one job is to play the game that you have played all of your life.

I hope that more athletes will have the courage to come out and show that it’s ok with who they are. But for now we wait.

Jennifer Rizzotti (second from right) looks to continue her success. Brian Izzo | The Informer

 After another successful campaign this past winter leading the women’s basketball team to a final record of 21-12 and going back to the America East championship, Jen Rizzotti will be looking to continue her success for a few more years.

Rizzotti just recently signed a contract extension through the 2017-2018 season, after she, University President Walter Harrison and Athletic Director Pat Meiser all agreed to the deal.

“Jen Rizzotti has had a brilliant career as coach of the Hartford Hawks women’s basketball team and has established herself as one of the premier coaches in the country at any level of the game,” said Harrison. “I am delighted that she has agreed to extend her contract with us, and I look forward to watching her lead our team far into the future.”

Rizzotti first signed with Hartford in September of 1999 and has since led the Hawks to six NCAA Tournament appearances and the program’s first win in the NCAA Tournament, when the team beat Temple in 2005-2006 with a score of 64-58.

Rizzotti also has accumulated an overall school-record of 276 wins, which is currently the most among current and former America East coaches.

Rizzotti has won the America East Coach of the Year three times, has given the school five America East Conference Championships and her 23 league tournament victories are the most in the history of the conference.

This June, Rizzotti will be inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame, where she will be one of six others entering as the class of 2013. Rizzotti, who is being inducted as a player, joins other big time name Division One head coaches, Gary Blair, who currently coaches at Texas A&M, and Jim Foster, who coached at Ohio State.

Rizzotti is also the third member of the Connecticut Huskies family to be inducted, joining Rebecca Lobo and head coach Geno Auriemma.

Rizzotti has also shown quality coaching, not just in college. She has a record of 13-1 as a USA Basketball head coach, where she lead the U.S. to Gold Medals at the 2011 U-19 FIBA Championships and the 2010 U-18 FIBA Americans.

“I’m thrilled to further extend my contract with the University of Hartford under the tremendous leadership of President Walter Harrison and Director of Athletics Pat Meiser,” said Rizzotti “The opportunity to continue to work with these phenomenal young women and build on our already rich tradition at this university is one I’ll continue to cherish each day, year, and decade I remain with the program.”

Even though Rizzotti is losing four senior’s this year, there is still a young team who has provided a lot of talent and promise for the future of Hartford women’s basketball.

After approaching .500 in the conference, Hartford struggles over the week. Brian Izzo | The Informer

With a tough 8-0 loss to Massachusetts last Thursday, the softball team looked to get above .500 in conference play as they would take on Binghamton in three games over the weekend.

Before heading into Saturday’s matchup, the Hawks had a conference record of 4-5, and would hope to add three wins to help improve as they closed in on the end of the season.

However, Hartford would only manage to pull away with a single victory from the three games, losing the first and third with scores of 0-3, and 1-6, respectively. And winning the second game in a close one with a final of 5-3. These losses would put the Hawks at a conference record of 5-7, and a not so pretty overall record of 16-26.

In the first game, the ladies had four hits coming from four different players. Those players being, Amber Andrews, Jenice Aloyo, Kate Wacyk and Jackie Kelly, who all went 1-3 on the day.

A bright spot for the Hawks was pitcher, Zuxana Kudernatschova, who pitched a complete game and allowed only two of three runs scored by the Bearcats. She also struck out seven batters and walked just one.

Hartford would have 12 of its first 13 batters retired in order with the lone runner courtesy of a hit batter. The Hawks first hit of the game came in the bottom of the fifth, a leadoff single to right field from Kelly, the third baseman. Kelly would be stranded at first as the next three were retired in order.

The Bearcats added their final two runs in the sixth inning courtesy of one swing of the bat from designated hitter Tiffany McIntosh as she drove in both runs thanks to a home run to dead center field.

Her home run allowed right fielder Sydney Harbaugh who reached on an infield single to score from first base.

The Hawks threatened in the bottom of the sixth putting runners on the corners before Demi forced the Hawks into a doubleheader to get out of trouble. The Hawks began the inning with three straight singles from the top three in the lineup. Demi would then retire the Hawks in order, the last two on strikeouts.

After Hartford took the first win in the double header with a score of 5-3, things did not go their way in the second game.

The Hawks only managed to score their only run in a 6-1 loss in the bottom of the sixth when Jordan Haines grounded out to the shortstop and let Wacyk score in from third. Wacyk also had two hits on the day, while Aloyo and Kelly had the other two hits in the game.

As for pitching, Kaitlyn Meade received the loss putting her to 4-10 on the season as she gave up three hits, three runs and walked four, only managing to strikeout one of the Bearcats. Kudernatschov and Brittany Beebe came into relief, where both gave up three hits, but Kudernatschov also let in three runs.

The ladies look to redeem themselves in conference play as they head down to UMBC this weekend for a three game series against the Retrievers.

Brian Izzo | The Informer

Heading into this past week, the men’s lacrosse team looked to improve their even record of 4-4 as they looked to take on number 20 in the nation, Albany, in conference play. The Hawks, who just beat UMBC in an overtime thriller, 15-14, looked to stay undefeated in the America East and propel themselves to another conference title next month.

Unfortunately, Albany was too much for the boys to handle, as they were put down with a final score of 24 to 11. The Great Danes were the ones to stay undefeated in conference play and improved their overall record to 8-3 on the season.

Seniors Jared Franze and Rory Nunamacher scored three and two goals, respectively, but it wasn’t enough as the Great Danes outscored the Hawks 13 to 3 in the second half, which extended their three-goal lead they had at halftime.

Hartford looked to show some promise early on as they played an even match with Albany, where they traded two goals each in the first 11 minutes. After Freshman Jack Bobzien tied things up at two, Adam Yee gave the Hawks their first lead just four seconds later with the scoreboard showing 3-2 in Hartford’s favor.

Nunamacher put the Hawks ahead for the second and final time early in the second quarter, finding the back of the net just 31 seconds in, but the Great Danes had an impactful answer, rallying for a 7-0 run over the next five minutes to take a commanding 10-4 advantage over Hartford with 9:18 left to play before halftime.

Before the end of the half, Hartford managed to close the gap to down to three, scoring four of the final five goals. Franze shoveled in his first goal of the contest with 8:44 to go and Andrew Cacchio made it two in a row for the Hawks, ending the game’s first scoring drought, a six minute span, with his 16th goal of the season. Following a John Maloney tally that re-extendied UAlbany’s lead back to five with just over two minutes remaining, Garret Dollard and Franze reeled off two-straight to provide the three-goal halftime margin of 11-8.

After the disappointing loss to Albany, Hartford looked to rebound against Dartmouth. In what was one of the most exciting games all season, Garrett Dollard, proved to be the hero for the second time this season, putting in the winning goal with just 15.6 seconds remaining in regulation top push the Hawks to a 8-7 victory.

Dollard finished with a team-best two goals while Alex Matarazzo a long stick midfielder, contributed a pair of points on a goal and an assist. Rounding out the Hartford goals were Kevin O’Shea, Rory Nunamacher, Jack Bobzien and Tim Engel. Between the pipes, the Hawks received a solid outing from Frank Piechota, who registered 15 saves on the afternoon.

Hartford (5-5) broke open a 4-4 halftime tie with a pair of goals in the third quarter thanks to goals by O’Shea and Engel at 9:23 and 5:29, respectively. During that stretch, the Hawks’ defense kept Dartmouth’s offense silent, not conceding a goal during the entre quarter to maintain that 6-4 cushion heading into the final 15 minutes.

With the game tied at 1:17, Dartmouth had a chance to take the lead late, but failed to do so as their shot sailed over the crossbar and gave Hartford possession.

Hartford was given an extra man advantage as they decided to go with the nation’s top freshman in assists, Bobzien, who fed the ball to Dollard who scored the winning goal.

The Hawks will return to conference play as they will head over to Vestal, NY to take on Binghamton this Saturday at 1:00 pm. Hopefully, the boys will be able to get hot going into the post season and bring back another ring to the school.

Sophomore Ryan Lukah steps to the plate as Hartford hasn’t been able to get the ball rolling as of yet. Courtesy of Steve McLaughlin.

After finishing last season with a 16-40 overall record and 7-17 in conference, the University of Hartford baseball team looked to start off their season hot by taking home a few wins down south this past weekend.

The Hawks took on Campbell in North Carolina then James Madison in Virg., playing each team four times.

Unfortunately it looks like the men left off where they finished last year, losing all eight games by a large margin.

The Hawks lost to Campbell and James Madison by a total of 46-7, and 39-16, respectively in their series.

The team definitely had their worst games against Campbell, where the team had two games where they finished with batting averages of .148 and .103 and finished with five and a half hits per game.

Overall the team is batting .213 with 52 hits. The Hawks also only attained one homerun over the course of their first eight games.

However Trey Stover has provided some light for Hartford, finishing the weekend with .385 batting average and went 10 for 26 with six runs scored and two rbi’s.

Pitching also needs to be worked on for Hartford, where they finished the weekend with an atrocious 9.91 era due to the poor efforts out of Ryan Carter, Ryan Lukah and Alex Goulin. The players finished with a 18, 21.24, and 22.50 era’s respectively.  And opponents batting average against the Hawks is .341 and they have allowed 92 hits.

There was a bright spot in this poor showing this weekend. In their final game against James Madison the Hawks had their closest game only losing by two runs in 11 innings with a final score of 11-9.

Relief pitchers  Brian Murphy and Jeremy Charles were able to hold JMU scoreless for five innings, during which, Hartford added an additional run in the fifth.

Back-to-back hits from Stover and Brady Sheetz, the second a double which put both runners in scoring position, opened the inning before an infield groundout from James Alfonso secured the single run.

Luckily for Hartford, these games happened early on in the season and gives the coaching staff and players some time to fix the mistakes that were made in these first eight games and can make improvements for the future.

The Hawks will look to scoop up their first win when they travel to Troy, Alabama this weekend to play Troy and Southeast Louisiana in two games a piece.

Senior Ruthanne Doherty tries to find an open teammate as court vision has and will continue to be a priority. Brian Izzo | The Informer

The women’s basketball team looked to continue making progress through America East play as they neared closer to the America East tournament in a few weeks.

The Hawks looked to take on Maine and Albany this past Wednesday and Sunday, respectively.

First, the ladies took on the Blackbears from Maine on Wednesday and thoroughly dominated the entire four quarters.

Sophomores, Amber Bepko and Shanise Bultron, both had career high scores, along with a school record of 14 three pointers, which led to a win of 82-56.

Bepko finished with 21 points and Bultron with 18. This was the second straight game where Bepko finished with 20 or more points, while Bultron’s surpassed her career high of 10 points.

The pair also combined for 10 of Hartford’s 14 three pointers. Hartford also accounted for 24 assists, which is a season high, and is the most since a 2010 game against UMBC.

Hartford also led the battle of the boards, the third time in the last four games, with a 35-33 advantage led by five rebounds each for Nikkia Smith and Katie Roth.

All but one of Hartford’s  players who played finished with at least one rebound.

In addition to Bepko’s 21 points she also tied her career high with six assists, leading all players, while finishing with four rebounds.

The Hawks would match that advantage on two more occasions, the first after trading three point baskets from Michals and Roberts, which resulted in a 65-36 differential.

The final 29 point advantage came with under a minute remaining as Diamond Doe went back-to-back for the Hawks with a jumper and a lay-up, her first points of the season, to put the Hawks ahead 82-53 with 45 seconds remaining.

However, the Hawks were not as lucky in there game against undefeated in league play, the Albany Great Danes.

Bepko once again led the Hawks for the third straight game with 16 points, but the team fell 69-55.

The Hawks, now 8-5 in America East play, finished the contest shooting 30.6 percent (15-of-49), including a 33.3 percent effort from long range (7-of-21).

Albany used a 60 percent (12-of-20) second half shooting effort, 53.7 percent for the game (22-of-41), to secure their 12 straight victory.

The Great Danes also won the battle of the boards with a 35-23 advantage as Julie Forster led all players with 10 rebounds. Ruthanne Doherty led Hartford with six boards.

Defensively, the Hawks forced Albany into 24 turnovers, but managed to score just 10 points off of those miscues.

In turn, the Great Danes scored 22 points off of just 16 Hartford turnovers.

Alyssa Englert led all players in the game with five assists as her team finished with 12 assists on their 15 total baskets.

Doherty led the way with four steals.

With losing both times to Albany this season, the Hawks will look to avenge themselves heading into the tournament if they do come across Albany at some point.

With just three games left to play, the girls look to boost their standings for the best possible seed they can get in the America East tournament.