Awards Galore for Locals

Several New Englanders on Weekly College Honor Roll

September 9, 2009

With the beginning of the week comes weekly award announcements from various leagues across the region, and several New England-based players have been selected among the best for their recent exploits on the pitch.

Laura Martel

Laura Martel is America East's leading scorer so far this season. (Photo courtesy of Maine Athletics)

University of Maine’s Laura Martel won America East Women’s Soccer Player of the Week honors.

Martel, a senior striker, accounted for all the Black Bears’ scoring with three goals in a pair of games last week. She found the back of the net in a 3-1 loss at Dartmouth on Friday and became the first America East player with a multi-goal game this season by scoring twice to lead her team to a 2-2 tie against Iona Sunday.

Martel leads America East with three goals and six points thus far this season.

Boston College freshman Victoria DiMartino was named the Co-ACC Player of the Week sharing the honor with Florida State’s Florida State sophomore forward Jessica Price.

DiMartino was also named to the Soccer America Team of the Week and picked up the TopDrawerSoccer.com Player of the Week honors.

DiMartino helped the Eagles pick up three victories last week and improve to 4-0. She scored the game-winning goal in Wednesday’s 2-0 win over Boston University, and then delivered two goals (including another game-winner) and an assist in Friday’s 5-0 win at Brown. DiMartino also added a goal in Sunday’s win over Holy Cross, giving her nine points on the week and 11 for the season.

Dartmouth men’s soccer freshman Kevin Dzierzawski was named the Ivy League Rookie of the Week while his team rose in the national polls, ranking as high as sixth in the nation.

It was a big weekend for the rookie Dzierzawski, who scored five points and made his first collegiate start as the Big Green picked up a pair of victories. In his first collegiate game, Dzierzawski came off the bench to tally a goal and three assists as Dartmouth dispatched St. Peter's, 7-0. The rookie recorded an assist on Lucky Mksoana's goal just before the half to make it 4-0.

He helped a pair of teammates score their first collegiate goals and picked up one of his own in the second half, playing a role in all three of the Big Green’s second half goals. Dzierzawski earned his first career start two days later, helping the Big Green lockdown Northeastern with a 1-0 shutout win.

A pair of independent publications put the Big Green in the national top-10, with Soccer America ranking Dartmouth sixth nationally and College Soccer News tabbing the team ninth. The NSCAA coaches poll has Dartmouth at 13th nationally and third in the Northeast.

Rounding out the honors are a pair from Harvard, Caroline Albanese and Andre Akpan.

Albanese, a freshman, earned the first Ivy League Rookie of the Week honor this season. Albanese gave Harvard a 1-0 lead on her first collegiate goal in the Crimson’s season opener Friday against San Diego State.

After scoring two goals and assisting on three other Harvard tallies for seven points, Akpan was named the Ivy League Co-Player of the Week.

In the season opener against Stony Brook Friday, Akpan, Harvard’s all-time leading scorer with 104 points, found the back of the net twice in the second half of Harvard’s 4-1 victory over the Seawolves. He also assisted on a goal by Desmond Mitchell at 72:30 to finish the game with five points.

On Monday, Akpan handed out a pair of assists as Harvard topped Boston College by a 2-0 margin. The win was the first for Harvard over the Eagles since 2000.