Drexel sophmore attackman Nick Trizano and Robert Church play offence against Delaware
Philadelphia Inquirer Academic All-Area Team
The Philadelphia Inquirer has chosen to honor seven different Drexel student-athletes by naming them to the Academic All-Area Team. These student-athletes were able to maintain a 3.2 grade-point average while also excelling on the field, court or in the water.
The athletes honored were rowers Lorenzo Albala, Randall Lee and Jacob Sloan; pitcher Hillary Allen and catcher Paige Collings from the softball team; tennis star Nikoloz Kurdadze; and attackman Robert Church from the men’s lacrosse team.
Rowing
The Drexel women’s varsity eight boat stroke, junior Elizabeth Bratton, has been named the Colonial Athletic Association’s Women’s Rowing Scholar Athlete of the Year. After placing fourth at the CAA Championships and second in the consolation finals at the Dad Vail Regatta, she earned All-CAA honors as well.
Women’s Basketball
As previously reported, the Drexel women’s basketball team will be participating in the preseason Women’s National Invitational Tournament. The Dragons will open their season as host to Long Island University Nov. 11 at 7 p.m. at the DAC.
If the Dragons win the game, they will take on the winner of the Manhattan at Hartford game. Other teams in the Preseason WNIT are national powers Baylor and Notre Dame along with Akron, Chattanooga, Detroit, ETSU, Howard, Indiana State, McNeese State, Tennessee Tech and the University of Alabama-Birmingham.
Before beginning their season at the DAC in Philadelphia, the women will travel overseas for an early start to their season in Italy. They will play four games in Rome and Florence. \ The Dragons had previously traveled to Spain for the same type of preseason trip in 2007.
Wrestling
New Drexel wrestling head coach Matt Azevedo has made his first two hires for his staff. Azevedo has hired Zack Sheaffer and Todd Schavrien as his assistant coaches.
Sheaffer was most recently the assistant coach and interim head coach at Clarion University. Before that, he was an assistant at Limestone College. He is also a former heavyweight All-American as an undergrad at Pittsburgh.
Shavrien recently graduated from the University of Missouri. He was the 141-pound Big 12 champion in 2011, along with earning All-American status.
Field Hockey
Drexel head field hockey coach Denise Zelenak served as the New Jersey High Performance team head coach at the Junior Women’s National Championships. Zelenak led her team to its first ever championship title. Her team won 4-0-1 in the tournament, and they were helped to that record by incoming Drexel freshmen Christina Conrad and Meghan Plank.