By Mark Walters
The Hofstra Athletics Department celebrated its 2008-09 academic year with its annual Hofstra Pride Student-Athlete Awards Banquet at the University Club, on the campus’s north side.
Niki Williams, a senior point guard from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, delivered the evening’s keynote senior speech to the crowd of coaches, administrators, senior athletes, and board members.
Three different athletes received the Nick Colleluori Unsung Hero Award, given annually since 2007 to recognize the accomplishments of a male and female student-athlete who helped their teams achieve success in ways that aren’t measured by statistics. The award is named after the former Pride lacrosse player, Nick Colleluori, who waged a courageous 14-month battle against non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, before passing away in November 2006 at age 21.
Nick’s brother Michael, a senior midfielder on the lacrosse team, was fittingly named the Male Unsung Hero Tuesday evening, and he accepted the award to a full standing ovation, the only of the evening. Lauren Whitcomb, a senior midfielder on the women’s lacrosse team, was a co-winner of the Female Unsung Hero Award along with Carolann Lubach, a senior catcher on the softball team.
Colleluori is presently the second-leading scorer on the men’s lacrosse team with 31 points and a team-high 19 assists. He has worked tirelessly to honor the memory of his late brother, working to help those affected by non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma while raising funds to help search for a cure. He is the vice president of the HEADstrong Foundation, and founder and president of LEAN ON ME, which is a support group focusing on young adults dealing with the loss of a loved one. Last summer he completed an internship in the Oncology Department at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP). After graduating in May with a degree in community health, Michael plans to join the research team at HUP, taking classes to qualify for medical school and become a physician.
Whitcomb fought back from a torn ACL suffered in last year’s season finale at Stony Brook and was back to 100 percent for the start of the 2009 season. As a team captain, she played in 14 games this season, starting 12. She scored 17 goals and added two assists for 19 points on the season. She also picked up 31 draw controls, 15 ground balls and caused 11 turnovers.
Lubach has caught virtually every inning since coming to Hofstra in 2006, starting a remarkable 207 of a possible 212 games. In 2008 she didn’t allow a passed ball and yielded only six wild pitches in 58 games. In all four of Lubach’s seasons behind the plate, opponents have stolen less than 30 bases each year.
Among the other award winners were men’s lacrosse sophomore attackman Jay Card, who was named the 2009 Howard “Howdy” Myers Male Athlete of the Year. He shared the award with Charles Jenkins, a sophomore on the basketball team. Card leads the CAA in goals per game with 2.36 as well as points per game with 3.09. He has scored seven game-winning goals this season. He was twice named the CAA Player of the Week in 2009 and last summer he was an All-World selection as a member of Team Canada at the Under-19 World Championships, scoring 22 goals in seven games.
Jenkins recently won the Haggerty Award as the top player in the Metropolitan New York area, becoming the fifth Hofstra player to win the award, joining Bill Thieben (1956), Rich Laurel (1977), Speedy Claxton (2000), and Norman Richardson (2001). He was also the first sophomore to win the award since NBA-legend Chris Mullin of St. John’s did so in 1983. Jenkins averaged 19.7 points, 4.8 rebounds, and 4.3 assists, making him one of only six players in the nation who averaged at least 19 points, four boards, and four dimes per game.
Kayleigh Lotti took home the Dr. Nathalie J. Smith Female Athlete of the Year Award. Lotti is a three-time CAA Pitcher of the Year, having recently snagged her third award in as many years. This season she has recorded an 18-6 record with a 1.26 ERA and 215 strikeouts in 172 1/3 innings. Additionally, she has thrown seven shutouts, and nine times this season she has notched 10 or more Ks in a contest. Three times she’s been named CAA Pitcher of the Week, as opposing hitters have hit a mere .168 against the senior from Attleboro, Massachusetts.
Nick Altomore, a senior defensive back on the Pride football team and management major, won the Dr. James M. Shuart Male Scholar-Athlete Award while Lauren Engle, a senior outside hitter on the volleyball team and psychology major, took home the Dr. Sylvia J. Giallombardo Female Scholar-Athlete Award. Both Altomore and Engle were named to the CoSIDA-ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District first team, having both been named to the prestigious team twice, Engle in 2008 and 2009, Altomore in 2007 and 2008.
Maintaining a 3.61 grade point average, Altomore is a multiple-time Dean’s List student and has been named to the conference All-Academic team on two occasions. Engle holds an overall 3.81 GPA and has made the Hofstra Provost’s List (4.0 GPA) two different semesters.
Each team honored a senior member with the annual Outstanding Senior Award: Baseball, Adam Perlo; Men’s Basketball, Zygis Sestokas; Women’s Basketball, Niki Williams; Men’s Cross Country, Mark Walters; Women’s Cross Country, Mary Sullivan; Field Hockey, Charlia Warner; Football, Nick Altomore; Men’s Golf, Sean Davy; Women’s Golf, Elizabeth Warren; Men’s Lacrosse, Steve Prifte; Women’s Lacrosse, Alysse Ruszkowski; Men’s Soccer, Corey Gudmundson; Women’s Soccer, Edel Malone; Softball, Kayleigh Lotti; Men’s Tennis, Nenad Radakovic; Women’s Tennis, Stacey Kent; Volleyball, Lauren Engle; Wrestling, Alton Lucas.