Athletic Accolades: Coach of the Year, Rookie of the Week, and Region Awards

Riley Named GNAC Golf Coach of the Year

11/30/21 – The Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) golf postseason accolades have been revealed and Saint Joseph’s College skipper Jason Riley has been selected, by vote of his peers, as the GNAC Coach of the Year.

Riley, now in his third year at the helm for St. Joe’s, guided the Monks to their second GNAC Championship in the last five years as the team posted a 646 (330-316) card to claim the 2021-22 title at the New Haven Country Club on October 12th.

With the victory, Saint Joseph’s earned the GNAC’s automatic qualifier into the 2022 NCAA DIII Tournament, which will be played at the Mission Inn Resort in Howey-in-the-Hills, Florida May 10th through the 13th, 2022.

Three SJC players garnered All-Conference accolades, as freshman Drew Mathieu (Windham, Maine) headlined the Monks’ efforts by earning GNAC Player and Rookie of the Year honors after pacing the entire GNAC field with a 159 (81-78) card at the very challenging course. Junior Sean McDonough (Concord, N.H.), who placed third with a 162 (84-78) score, and senior Jake Laplume (Old Orchard Beach, Maine), who was fifth with a 163 (82-81), also claimed All-Conference honors after securing top-five finishes.

In three short years under Coach Riley’s watch, the SJC men’s golf program has shown considerable growth. In his first season (2019), Saint Joseph’s served as the tournament host at the Biddeford-Saco Country Club and the Monks placed third with a 633 score. Due to the pandemic, last year’s championship was held in the spring and St. Joe’s finished as the runner-up with a 343 single-round card.

This year’s team featured the largest recruiting class – five newcomers – in recent memory as each of the Monks’ 11 players had the ability to qualify for tournament play each week. The high level of competition within the team led to success on the course, as Saint Joseph’s won three tournaments this fall, the most victories in a season since the 2016 squad won six events.

Hurley Picked as GNAC Rookie of the Week

11/30/21 – The Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) weekly accolades have been announced and Saint Joseph’s College sophomore Angelica Hurley (Groveland, Mass.) has been named as the GNAC Women’s Basketball Rookie of the Week.

Hurley turned in an incredible performance in a 62-52 win over Southern Maine on Sunday, as the sophomore swing player tallied 21 points, 15 rebounds, five assists, five steals, and a pair of blocked shots in the triumph. Back on Tuesday in a lopsided win over UMaine Farmington, she registered three points and 11 boards in just 20 minutes of action. For the week, Hurley averaged 12.0 points, 13.0 rebounds, 3.5 assists, and 1.0 blocks per game while shooting 50% from the field and 77.8% from the FT line.

Through five games this winter, Hurley is averaging 12.0 points, 10.6 rebounds and 3.8 rebounds while shooting 41.0% (16-39) from the floor and 69.7% (23-33) from the free throw line. She leads the team in rebounding and is tied for second with junior Jayne Howe (Pembroke, Mass.) in scoring.

Grogan & Mattos Earn United Soccer Coaches All-Region Honors

11/30/21 – The United Soccer Coaches All-Region accolades have been released and a pair of Saint Joseph’s College women’s players have been listed on the Region I teams.

Adia Grogan

Senior goalkeeper Adia Grogan (Kennebunk, Maine) has claimed Second Team honors while senior midfielder Kayley Mattos (Mahopac, N.Y.) has earned Third Team acclaim.

Grogan claims takes home United Soccer Coaches All-Region honors for the second time after posting a 1.08 goals against average and a .878 save percentage with 18 goals allowed and 130 saves in 1,505 minutes this fall. The three-year starter led the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) in games (20) and minutes and ranked second in the league in saves, save percentage, and shutouts.

In three years between the posts at Saint Joseph’s, the two-time GNAC Goalkeeper of the Year accumulated a 40-15-3 record with 15 shutouts to go with a 1.06 goals against average and an .854 save percentage over 59 career games. She leaves the program ranked third in victories, fourth in saves (351), fifth in goals against average, and sixth in save percentage, shutouts, games, and minutes (5,076),

Kayley Mattos

Mattos earns her first regional honor after scoring three goals with four assists for 10 total points in 21 games this fall. A hardworking player with outstanding quickness and soccer acumen, Mattos enjoyed a fine career at St. Joe’s with 10 goals – including five game-winners – and seven assists for 27 total points in 53 games over three seasons.

Grogan and Mattos are two of six GNAC players to have claimed 2021 United Soccer Coaches Regional awards as Lasell senior defender Korynne Porvenzano and freshman forward Alyssa DeOliveira and Johnson & Wales junior forward Jordan Restivo earned Second Team honors while Albertus Magnus College senior forward Haley Andrews collected Third Team accolades.

In 2021, ninth-year Head Coach Jenelle Harris guided the Monks to a 12-8-0 overall record with an 11-3-0 mark in conference play en route to securing the #3 seed in the GNAC Tournament. St. Joe’s blanked Elms College, 2-0, in a conference quarterfinal at the SJC Athletics Complex on September 30th but saw the season come to a close with a 2-0 setback at the hands of #2 Lasell University three days later.

Grant Named United Soccer Coaches Third Team All-Region I

11/30/21 – The United Soccer Coaches All-Region honors have been announced and Saint Joseph’s College graduate defender Colin Grant (Harvard, Mass.) has earned Region I Third Team accolades.

Colin Grant

Grant, the 2021 GNAC Defensive Player of the Year, led the Monks in goals (10), points (26), and game-winning goals (5) during the 2021 campaign. The third-year starter and team captain led a back line that notched a conference-best 0.61 goals against average and held Norwich’s Joseph Thongsythavong and USJ’s DeAnte Anderson – a duo that netted 43 goals combined this fall – scoreless over four games, a total of over 375 minutes, versus the Cadets and Blue Jays.

Only one NCAA DIII Men’s Soccer player listed as a defender – Husson sophomore Jordi Cabau Limens – netted more points than Grant this fall. A stalwart defender with excellent field vision and ball skills, Grant was the Monks’ best all-around player this season and was a major force in the team’s GNAC Championship run.

Grant joins Norwich’s junior Joey Thongsythavong (Second Team) and senior Amerle Nemeye (Third Team) as one of just three GNAC players to be listed on United Soccer Coaches All-Region teams this fall.

Under the watch of third-year Head Coach Will Pike, the Monks posted a 16-2-2 overall record with a 12-0-0 mark in conference player en route to earning the top seed in the GNAC Tournament. The Monks defeated #8 Colby-Sawyer (3-0) and #5 University of Saint Joseph (3-1) to advance to the GNAC Championship game for the fifth-consecutive season. St. Joe’s tipped #2 Norwich, 1-0 in double-overtime, in the league title bout on November 6th to earn the program’s sixth GNAC crown.

With the GNAC’s automatic qualifier into the 2021 NCAA DIII National Tournament, Saint Joseph’s faced New York University in the opening round in a contest played at Connecticut College on November 13th. The Monks scored twice in the opening 18 minutes and held a 2-1 lead with 16 minutes left when the game was halted due to lightning. The decision was made to resume the game several hours later at Conn College’s lighted turf field. NYU tied the game with just over a minute left and netted the winner with 39 seconds left in the first overtime to end the Monks’ season.