MVCC Women’s Cross Country seeks to defend National Championship

Caption: Pictured is Athlete of the Week: For Samantha Spohler’s performance of two goals and one assist in the 3-2 overtime victory against Finger Lakes CC en route to the Hawks’ Region III Championship, she has been named the MVCC Athlete of the Week. Spohler scored the game-winning goal eight minutes into the first overtime. She is a freshman Physical Education major who graduated from Cairo Durham High School.

Mohawk Valley Community College’s Women’s Cross Country team will seek to defend their 2008-09 NJCAA national championship and the Men’s harriers will seek their national title at this weekend’s national championship meet, to be held at Finger Lakes Community College.

Leading the Hawks over the past two weeks was sophomore Hannah Hoffman (Rome/Rome Free Academy) who won the Mountain Valley Conference championship and the Region III crown for the Hawks. Hoffman has been named Region III’s Female Athlete of the Week for the second time this season as she won the regional race in a time of 20:46. She is undefeated among junior and community college competitors.

Also leading MVCC will be Cassie White (Marcy/Oriskany HS) and Michelle Page (Whitesboro/Whitesboro HS), who were both named to the All Region III team for their finishes.

In other MVCC sports news …

Women’s Soccer: Samantha Spohler (East Durham/Cairo-Durham High) has raised her level of playing while leading the Mohawk Valley Community College women’s soccer team the NJCAA Region III, Division III championship last weekend.

Spohler scored three goals to pace the Hawks in a 5-3 victory over Jefferson CC in the semifinals. She came back in the championship game with two goals and one assist as MVCC knocked off Finger Lakes CC, 3-2, in overtime.

Also pacing the Hawks in the Jefferson game was Nicole DiNitto (Marcy/Oriskany HS) as MVCC lead 3-1 at halftime. Goalkeeper Caitlyn Smith (Madison/Madison High) made eight saves to preserve the win. In the championship game, which was held in Cortland, Alyssa Upson (Frankfort/Whitesboro High) scored a goal for MVCC while Smith made six saves between the posts.

These two victories advance MVCC to the NJCAA District Championship game against Nassau CC on Saturday, November 7, at 5:30 p.m. on the campus of Tompkins-Cortland CC.

Women’s Basketball: The Hawks picked up the 2009-2010 season where they left off as MVCC flew past Finger Lakes CC to a 90-74 victory. The top gun for the Hawks was freshman guard Domonique Washington (San Bernardino, Ca/Redlands East Valley HS) with 29 points. The Hawks host the Torchia Classic on Saturday and Sunday, November 7-8.

Men’s Basketball: A pair of sophomores stepped up their game to pace MVCC to a season open victory over Finger Lakes CC, 58-58. Sophomore guard Bradley Griffin (Rochester/Charlotte HS) led all the scoring with 16 points while teammate Jerome Davis (Rochester/Franklin HS) added 11 points to put the game away. MVCC hosts the Torchia Classic on Friday and Saturday, November 6-7.

Ice Hockey: The Hawks were led by Dustin Frankey (Rome/Rome Free Academy) and David Roy (Oneida/Clinton High) with one goal each as MVCC opened the season with back-to-back defeats to Oswego State ACHA, 6-2, and Erie CC, 12-1.

Frankey also scored one goal and assisted on a second as MVCC dropped a 15-3 final to Monroe CC. Also scoring for the Hawks was David Roy (Clinton/Clinton HS) as MVCC slips to 0-3 and 0-4.

MVCC Women’s Cross Country seeks to defend National Championship

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