NCAA – News

Video: Three great moments for Bobcat sports this week

Aaron Morse — Fri, 27 Oct 2017 07:46:02 +0000

Good things happen in threes. So do great things, especially for Bobcat sports this past week. Take a look:

1. Women’s rowing captures Head of the Charles title

Guided by senior coxswain Hanna De Bruyn of Old Lyme, Conn., the �ֲ��ý women’s varsity eight set a course record on Oct. 22 to win the women’s collegiate eights at the prestigious Head of the Charles Regatta.

De Bruyn and her crew navigated the serpentine 4,800-meter course on the Charles River in 16:01.182, outpacing last year’s Head of the Charles winner Wesleyan by 16.863 seconds.

�ֲ��ý women’s rowing captured the women’s collegiate eights at the Head of the Charles on Oct. 22. (Photograph by Daniel D’Ottavio)

2. Men’s soccer qualifies for NESCACs with amazing goal vs. Colby

The �ֲ��ý men’s soccer team heads to the NESCAC championship tournament thanks to a miraculous goal scored in the final minute of the Bobcats’ regular-season finale at Colby on Wednesday afternoon.

Sophomore Beaufils Kimpolo-Pene of the Bronx, N.Y., knocked in the rebound of his initial saved shot with 24 seconds left in the second overtime period.

�ֲ��ý plays at top-seeded Tufts Saturday at 2:30 p.m. in the NESCAC quarterfinals.

3. Field hockey also beats Colby, in final seconds, to earn NESCAC bid

For the third straight year, the �ֲ��ý field hockey team beat Colby in the final game of the season to earn a spot in the NESCAC tournament. Here’s what it looked like:

With the win, �ֲ��ý earns the eighth seed in the NESCAC tournament and visits top seed and No. 2 nationally ranked Middlebury on Saturday. The NESCAC quarterfinal match is set for 12:00 p.m.

Livestream: NCAA men’s lax on Saturday, NESCAC baseball today

Jay Burns — Fri, 12 May 2017 17:23:21 +0000

Tourney time! Watch the �ֲ��ý–Amherst NCAA men's lax game at 1 p.m. Saturday, and the �ֲ��ý–Middlebury NESCAC baseball game at 3 p.m. today.

Video: Jacqueline Forney ’18 sets up �ֲ��ý volleyball for success

Aaron Morse — Fri, 04 Nov 2016 16:09:59 +0000

As the volleyball team’s setter, Jacqueline Forney ’18 of Bloomington, Ind., controls the flow of the offense, like a point guard in basketball.

A team captain since sophomore year, Forney can’t be rattled, says head coach Melissa DeRan.

“She understands that a volleyball match is a lot of points and that short-term memory loss is your best asset,” DeRan says. “She doesn’t get wrapped up in what happened two seconds ago, she’s always looking ahead, always looking forward and ready for the next play.”

An ability to focus on the here and now combined with a vision for the program’s future makes Forney a special athlete.

“Five, 10 years down the road, when we’re at the top of the NESCAC — that’s what I’m looking forward to,” says Forney. “And being able to come back and know that you were a part of creating this program.”

�ֲ��ý takes on in a quarterfinal game in the NESCAC Championships. And Forney has them set up for success.

Women’s rowing wins NCAA Division III Championship

Andy Walter — Sat, 30 May 2015 21:17:24 +0000

In dramatic and unexpected fashion, women's rowing won the college's first-ever NCAA team championship Saturday in Gold River, Calif.

�ֲ��ý women’s basketball coach Jim Murphy retires after 21 seasons, 343 victories and six NCAA appearances

�ֲ��ý News — Tue, 07 Apr 2015 13:01:04 +0000

After 21 seasons, 343 victories and six NCAA Tournament appearances, Jim Murphy is retiring as head coach of the �ֲ��ý College women’s basketball team, effective at the end of the 2014–15 academic year.

The �ֲ��ý Department of Athletics will immediately begin a national search for the team’s new head coach.

Jim Murphy congratulates his team after a win vs. Bowdoin on Feb. 1, 2005. The victory was the 200th in Murphy’s career, en route to 343 career victories. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ��ý College)

Murphy, who also coached women’s soccer at �ֲ��ý between 1994 and 2011, “has been one of the most successful coaches that we have ever had at �ֲ��ý College,” said Director of Athletics Kevin McHugh.

“Throughout his tenure he has led his programs with the utmost integrity, an amazing work ethic and a passion for excellence. Beyond the multitude of achievements, Jim’s outstanding leadership is also reflected in the scores of young women who played for him and have gone on to distinguish themselves after their �ֲ��ý careers.

“Jim always brought a sense of humor and has been a quiet, steadfast influence, instrumental in the development of our younger staff. He will be sorely missed but remembered fondly.”

Murphy has led the women’s basketball program through 21 of its 47 years in existence, and is the program’s longest-tenured coach by far. Murphy entered the 2014–15 season ranked 49th among active Division III coaches in career wins (333), and finishes his career with a 343–187 record — a winning percentage of .647.

Murphy talks with his team in the locker room during a 2012 game in Alumni Gymnaisum. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ��ý College)

Meg Coffin '08, a two-time All-American for Murphy, in both soccer and basketball, typified the mental and physical toughness displayed by Murphy's players. (Phylllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ��ý College)

"The things in life that are earned...are much more valuable than something that's given to you," Murphy once said.

Murphy exults after an NCAA Tournament win vs. Emmanuel College on March 5, 2005. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ��ý College)

A packed Alumni Gym watches the Bobcats defeat Emmanuel College in the first round of the 2005 NCAA Tournament. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ��ý College)

A 1969 graduate of �ֲ��ý, Murphy taught English for 24 years at Masconomet Regional High School in Topsfield, Massachusetts, where he coached the girls’ soccer team to a 269–40–16 record and the girls’ basketball team to a 132–31 mark. Murphy returned to his alma mater in 1994 to lead the women’s varsity soccer and basketball programs.

At �ֲ��ý, he spearheaded an almost immediate turnaround in the basketball team’s fortunes. Murphy led the Bobcats to a 17–7 mark in his second season, 1995–96, kicking off a run of 15 consecutive winning seasons. �ֲ��ý competed in the NCAA Division III Tournament for the first time in 1996–97, finishing 20–5, then returned to the NCAAs for three more years in a row, including a Sweet Sixteen appearance in 1997–98.

�ֲ��ý reached new heights in 2004–05, earning the No. 1 national ranking for four weeks and finishing 25–3 with a second NCAA Sweet Sixteen appearance. �ֲ��ý returned to the tournament for a sixth time in 2006, finishing 19–9. Sixteen of Murphy’s 21 teams finished with a winning record, and six former players were named All-America.

Murphy led the women’s soccer team for 16 seasons beginning in 1994, amassing a 146–93–13 record, including the 2005 NESCAC Women’s Soccer Championship and NCAA Division III Championship tournament appearances in 1996, 1997 and 2005. Murphy also coached the team to two ECAC Championship finals, winning the title in 1998.

As an undergraduate, Murphy was one of the finest players in the history of �ֲ��ý football, and perhaps the program’s greatest quarterback. He still owns the team’s records for touchdown passes in a career (50) and season (17), and is one of just three players to have his number (10) retired, in 1968. He also played two years of varsity basketball at �ֲ��ý.

Murphy’s reputation even in his student days was built on his hard work and pursuit of team goals. “He was kind of humble about it all,” the late Bob Hatch, former �ֲ��ý football coach, told �ֲ��ý Magazine in 1997. “He never considered himself a big star, even though he clearly was.”

A native of Portland, Maine, Murphy brought his simple, hard-boiled ethos into his coaching philosophy, and his players were known for their mental toughness. In the �ֲ��ý Magazine story, he said, “Everything has to be earned. If you’re a member of varsity or a starter, you should be proud, but come fall or spring, it’s something you have to earn.

“The things in life that are earned are to be cherished and treasured and are much more valuable than something that’s given to you. Competing for your school is the greatest opportunity someone can have, and you have to earn the right to be on the team, or to get playing time, or to start.”

Fly through the woods on skis

Phyllis Graber Jensen — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 17:52:54 +0000

�ֲ��ý plays host to the NCAA Skiing Championships, March 11-14. See a video preview of the Black Mountain Nordic course produced by H. Lincoln Benedict ’09.

Hurtle down a giant slalom course

Phyllis Graber Jensen — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 17:44:43 +0000

Welcoming the best collegiate skiers in the nation, �ֲ��ý College plays host to the 2009 NCAA Skiing Championships March 11-14 at its two home venues: Sunday River in Bethel, Maine (alpine) and Black Mountain in Rumford, Maine (Nordic).

“Ever wonder what it’s like to hurtle down a giant slalom course at highway speeds?” asks Lincoln Benedict ’09. Find out by watching his video preview of the NCAA course.

�ֲ��ý plays host to the NCAA Skiing Championships, March 11-14

Jay Burns — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 17:36:44 +0000

Here are guides to the alpine and Nordic events at Sunday River and Black Mountain, respectively:

How to watch the Alpine events at Sunday River.
How to watch the Nordic events at Black Mountain.

Peaking for the 2009 NCAA skiing championships

Phyllis Graber Jensen — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 21:50:16 +0000

Sam Evans-Brown ’09 completes a breakout weekend with his second consecutive fifth-place finish in the �ֲ��ý Winter Carnival. In March, �ֲ��ý hosts the 2009 NCAA National Collegiate Men’s and Women’s Skiing Championships and partners with two of Maine’s outstanding skiing venues: Sunday River in Bethel and Black Mountain in Rumford.

A Smashing Return

�ֲ��ý News — Sun, 11 May 2008 15:02:38 +0000

In May, some of the country’s best men’s tennis players will converge on the Wallach Tennis Center for the 2008 NCAA Division III Men’s Tennis Championships.

By staging the event at �ֲ��ý, the NCAA has asked the College to répétez, s’il vous plaît, a phrase that serves up two ideas. The first is the event’s quick return to �ֲ��ý; it was just here in 2004 and comes back in large part because of the fine job �ֲ��ý did that year. The second is the event’s local flavor, provided by tournament director and tennis coach Paul Gastonguay ’89, a Lewiston native and former All-America player who returned to his alma mater 13 years ago — but not before proving his tennis tenacity among the game’s best.

Like any serious player, men’s tennis coach Paul Gastonguay ’89 never travels with just one racquet. Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen.

In returning to �ֲ��ý in 1996, Gastonguay was coming back to a family whose local ties are racquet-string tight. His father, Jean, is a retired high school French teacher and his mother, Mercedes, is an artist who runs her own teaching studio. Both are big fans of Lewiston’s No. 1 sport, hockey, cheering on the Maineiacs of the Quebec Junior Hockey League.

Their son Paul, who spoke mostly French until kindergarten, grew up playing all kinds of sports but gravitated to tennis, captivated by his family’s passion for the sport. His father coached tennis with great success at the high school level, while his uncle Roger was the pro at Central Maine Tennis, off Lisbon Street. In high school, Paul and his brother, Marc, helped lead the Lewiston Blue Devils to a state championship.

“We were never forced to play but always found ourselves following my dad to the courts because we loved it,” he says.

Then it was on to �ֲ��ý, where tennis coach George Wigton encountered this “slightly pudgy” freshman. Wigton suggested a weight program, and estimates that Gastonguay put on “probably 30 pounds of muscle, which just made him a whole different player.” Gastonguay also grew in his coach’s estimation. “He was probably the most diligent, dedicated player I ever coached,” Wigton says.

Gastonguay earned All-America honors, following in the footsteps of �ֲ��ý’ first All-America player, Bud Schultz ’81. After graduation, Schultz, beginning to wind down his pro career, offered Gastonguay a job as a tennis instructor at Longwood Cricket Club in Brookline, Mass., where Schultz was tennis director. Right away, the elder Bobcat saw that Gastonguay was on the ball. “No one ever wants to pick up balls” after practice, says Schultz. “But Paul was the first person I’d ever seen who would run to pick them up.” He mentored the younger Bobcat, and Gastonguay readily credits Schultz’s “world-class coaching” for lifting his own game “to the next level.”

At the time, Schultz was an adviser to Ivan Lendl, then the No. 1–ranked men’s player in the world. Lendl called one day to ask Schultz if he could come down to Lendl’s home in Greenwich, Conn., for a few days of workouts. Schultz couldn’t, but suggested the hustling Gastonguay instead. “I sent Paul down to Lendl’s house and he never came back,” laughs Schultz.

Lendl and Gastonguay played their first match shortly after Paul rolled his beat-up Subaru up Lendl’s gated driveway. He lost, 4-6, 4-6, but won a job as Lendl’s training partner. Lendl, who once described his greatest talent as the talent to work hard, found in Gastonguay the rare workout partner who could return whatever Lendl sent his way for however long.

“I actually worried about him burning out too quickly,” recalls Lendl. “Paul was great for practicing because he would try anything and always go full out. What you need is someone who goes after every shot and tries to make every shot, no matter what the score — even if you’re beating him pretty handily.”

Says Gastonguay, “I knew that Ivan was thankful that I would work as hard as he did and never give up.”

Besides serving as a training partner, Gastonguay also worked at Lendl’s tennis center in Bedford, N.Y., in the early ’90s. In effect, he got an advanced degree in all things tennis, the teachers being Lendl, other pros who came and went, and Lendl’s primary coach, the legendary Tony Roche. “Paul learned from the best in terms of how to train for tennis,” says Schultz. Especially from working with Lendl, “Paul learned everything from fitness to technique. Everything from A to Z.”

Gastonguay was also working on his own professional game, and one hard lesson was the load of money it takes to fund a startup career. Chasing balls was one thing, but chasing money was another. “I was close,” Gastonguay says, “but it just wasn’t going to happen with my financial situation.” Encouraged by the retiring Wigton to seek the �ֲ��ý coaching job, Gastonguay returned to �ֲ��ý in 1996. In recent years, he’s also been raising two daughters with his wife, Leslie.

Coaching success has included various coach of the year honors; seven straight (2000–06) team appearances in the NCAA Championships; and Will Boe-Wiegaard ’06 winning �ֲ��ý’ first-ever NCAA singles title in 2006. This year, he’s got some exceptional young players, including Amrit Rupasinghe ’10, Sri Lanka’s national singles champion, and Ben Stein ’09 of Pelham, N.Y., who’s advanced from a modest junior ranking to the top 25 in Division III.

“Paul has done nothing short of a miraculous job in recruiting players and also developing good athletes, like Ben, into excellent tennis players,” Schultz says.

In 2006, Gastonguay was inducted into the Auburn-Lewiston Sports Hall of Fame. Flattered to be chosen, Gastonguay was nevertheless confused, accustomed as he was to reading about his �ֲ��ý elders, like former athletics director Bob Hatch or Dave Harkins ’53, being inducted.

“I wanted to make sure they realized I hadn’t retired or anything,” he said. “I’m a long way from done here.”

By Andy Walter, Photographs By Phyllis Graber Jensen