Oct. 12, 2011

CENTER VALLEY, Pa. - After garnering weekly awards from the Patriot League on Monday, five student-athletes were also recognized with Player of the Week nods from the Eastern College Athletic Conference Tuesday.

In addition to the weekly awards, the ECAC came out with its first Lambert Meadowlands Football polls of the 2011 season. Lehigh, which is ranked No. 8/9 in the nation, came in at No. 2 in the Football Championship Subdivision Lambert Poll with 100 points. The Mountain Hawks were tied with Maine behind No. 1 New Hampshire.

Two student-athletes from Lafayette were honored, with senior goalkeeper Graham Heydt named ECAC Men's Soccer Defensive Player of the Week and junior forward Deanna DiCroce garnering the ECAC Field Hockey Offensive Player of the Week nod.

Two of the League's five ECAC award winners Tuesday are from Lehigh. Senior defensive lineman Ben Flizack was named FCS Defensive Player of the Week and freshman goalkeeper Ashley Blanks captured the Defensive Player of the Week accolade in women's soccer.

Holy Cross senior Paige Sutherland is the first Crusader honored this fall with an ECAC award. She was named Women's Cross Country Player of the Week.

Flizack becomes the third consecutive Patriot Leaguer to secure the ECAC FCS Defensive Player of the Week award, following a pair from Bucknell the two previous weeks in Robert De La Rosa and Josh Eden. Flizack was dominant on defense in the Mountain Hawks' 30-6 victory at Bucknell, accounting for six tackles overall and two of his team's 10 sacks on the day. Monday marked Flizack's first career Patriot League weekly honor.

Heydt recorded 14 saves, the most of any Patriot League goalkeeper this season, in Lafayette's 1-0 shutout of Lehigh Saturday in a key League contest. On Monday Heydt was named the League's BRINE Goalkeeper of the Week for the second straight time.

Blanks stopped all 15 shots on goal she faced to post a 3-0-0 record last week for the surging Mountain Hawks, who collected a pair of shutout victories against League opponents American and Navy. Her week started out with a two-save performance in a 1-0 overtime win against Columbia, Lehigh's first against the Lions since 1993.

DiCroce, who garnered her fifth career League Offensive Player of the Week nod Monday, had a hand in each of her team's first four goals in Saturday's huge 5-3 victory over Bucknell. She scored twice in the game's first 10 minutes to put the Leopards on top and assisted on Aimee Smith's go-ahead goal that gave Lafayette a 3-2 lead. She added a helper on the eventual game-winner in the second half to seal the win.

Sutherland finished 18th at the New England Championships with a time of 18:24, helping the Crusaders finish seventh out of 39 teams. Monday marked her first League Runner of the Week award of the season and fifth of her career. She added the ECAC honor on Tuesday.

The Patriot League has accumulated 19 ECAC weekly honors during the fall, with six in football, four in field hockey, three each in men and women's soccer, two in women's cross country and one in men's cross country. Sutherland's ECAC award is the first for a Holy Cross student-athlete this fall. Eight different schools have collected at least one award.