University of Massachusets Athletics

Like It Is . . .

Like It Is . . . by Nick Joos
Nick Joss is the Assistant Athletic Director for Media Relations at UMass. He writes a monthly column for the Maroon & White.

Nick Joss is the Assistant Athletic Director for Media Relations at UMass. He writes a monthly column for the Maroon & White.

A little bit about a lot while wondering how many UMass teams will advance to postseason play this spring.

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The University of Massachusetts heads into May well positioned to capture its fifth A-10 Commissioner's Cup in the past seven years, and first since the 1997-98 academic year. Through the winter sports season, UMass has tallied 86.0 points to 61.5 points for second-place Rhode Island, 59.5 for third-place George Washington and 54.0 for fourth-place Xavier. The Musketeers are followed by Dayton (53.5), St. Joseph's (53.0), La Salle (52.0), Temple (50.5), Duquesne (40.5), St. Bonaventure (32.0) and Fordham (30.5) in the standings.

Massachusetts has scored a league-high 49.5 points from its women's sports, while its men's teams have provided a league-best 36.5 points. During the winter season, UMass captured the men's and women's swimming and diving titles, as six of its seven winter sport squads finished from first to fourth in the league standings.

As you may recall, Commissioner's Cup points are awarded in descending order of finish, equal to the number of teams participating in each sport. Regular season standings are used in sports which play a round-robin schedule: baseball, men's and women's basketball, field hockey, women's lacrosse, men's and women's soccer, softball and volleyball.

A-10 champions to be crowned this spring include baseball, men's golf, women's lacrosse, crew, softball, men's and women's tennis, and men's and women's outdoor track and field.

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Time for another incredibly tough quiz (ITQ): Name the only UMass student-athlete to earn first team all-conference honors as a basketball player and win a conference singles title in tennis. Keep reading to find out the answer.

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Speaking of tennis, April was a good month for coach Judy Dixon's UMass men's and women's tennis programs. The Minutemen turned in a second-place effort at last month's A-10 Championships in Pittsburgh, their highest finish ever at an A-10 meet (the previous best finish was third in 1980), while the women captured the A-10 crown for the first time ever to garner the league's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament later this month.

UMass, who dropped a 4-2 decision to St. Bonaventure in the title game, advanced to the championship by beating Dayton and Xavier by identical 4-3 scores, and finished the season with a 12-8 record. The Minutewomen, meanwhile, beat Rhode Island and Xavier by identical 4-0 scores, then downed George Washington in the title game, 4-2.

Coach Dixon, who directs both the men's and women's programs at UMass, posted her 100th victory as coach of the Minutewomen with her team's 6-1 victory over Villanova, March 31. The winningest coach in the history of the UMass women's tennis program, Dixon is four victories shy of win No. 100 on the men's side, where she ranks second in victories to Stephan Kosakowski's 182 wins from 1949-1976.

Later this month, Dixon will be inducted into the Montclair (N.J.) Kimberley Academy Athletic Hall of Fame. Congratulations, Judy!!

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Staying with the milestone theme for a second, veteran UMass softball coach Elaine Sortino recorded win No. 700 with her team's 14-6 victory over La Salle on March 24. She became the 21st individual in NCAA history to join the "700 Club," a tremendous tribute to Sortino, her staff and student-athletes who must often not only overcome the opponent, but Mother Nature as well when competing on the diamond. Coach Sortino ranks as the 12th-winningest active coach in NCAA Division I based on victories, 719 through April 22 and counting, while her .689 winning percentage ranks 14th-best among active D-I coaches.

The Minutewomen, meanwhile, are well on their way to recording their 22nd winning season under Sortino's leadership and the program's 25th-straight dating to 1976. UMass cracked the coaches Top 25 in March for a week, then after a couple of weeks out of the rankings, returned to the Top 25 in mid-April after putting together a 24-game win streak.

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ITQ Answer: Rodger Twitchell is the only UMass basketball player to earn first-team all conference honors on the hardwood and capture a conference singles title in tennis. Twitchell, who earned first-team All-Yankee Conference honors in 1962 and 1963, and second-team recognition in 1964, finished his basketball career with 1,151 points, a figure which ranked second at the time of his graduation and stands 23rd total.

A towering lefthander with a powerful serve, Twitchell posted a career record of 24-1 in singles and 16-4 in doubles. He captured three-straight Yankee Conference single titles (1962-64) and won a league doubles crown in 1963.

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ITQ Part Two: Name the former Minuteman who made his major league pitching debut last month against the Cleveland Indians.

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Athletic events on the Massachusetts campus became safer for not only the student-athletes and coaches, but the fans, too, with the recent purchase of automatic external defibrillators (AEDs). The AEDs are part of the athletic department's new public access defibrillation program which trains staff and coaches to recognize a cardiac emergency and use the device to shock the heart into a regular rhythm. These devices will allow the staff to respond to any emergency that happens at events or practices.

The UMass Athletic Medicine staff, working with the Amherst Fire Department, has developed policies and guidelines to conform with laws that govern the use of the AEDs and the training required to use the machines. The Amherst Fire Department was instrumental in setting up and conducting the training for the UMass staff, and the plan calls for all coaches to eventually be trained in the use of the AEDs.

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Heading for Home: Congratulations to WHMP's Bob Behler and former UMass coach Jack Leaman for earning an Associated Press award for the best play-by-play basketball broadcast in Massachusetts and Rhode Island ... former UMass field hockey standout Lucy Koch traded in her stick for running shoes and finished the 2001 Boston Marathon in just over four hours in her first marathon ... according to researchers at the University of California at Berkeley, the world produces nearly two exabytes, or 2,000,000,000,000,000,000 bytes, to be exact or an average of 250 megabytes of new data per year divided among the word's 6 billion people ... my apologies to Ron Pozzo (UMass, Class of 1958) who was left off a note in a past Maroon & White saluting former Minutemen recently inducted into the New England Lacrosse Hall of Fame. Pozzo, who played for legendary coach Dick Garber, was inducted last June along with former UMass players Sal Locsio and Norman Smith ... Field hockey standout Patty Robinson, football star Kole Ayi and women's track and field's Melissa Ward were recently honored for their dedication in the weight room by being selected to the 2001 National Strength and Conditioning Association's All-America squads.

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ITQ Part II Answer: Chad Paronto, who lettered for coach Mike Stone in 1994, 1995 and 1996, made his major league debut in the Baltimore Orioles' 4-1 loss to the Indians, April 18, at Camden Yards. Patonto pitched two innings of scoreless relief. He is one of three UMass players in the majors at this time.