May 6, 2009

Center Valley, Pa.--For the eighth straight season, the Patriot League softball champion will be crowned in Bethlehem, Pa. Top-seeded Lehigh will host Colgate, Bucknell and Lafayette as the three-day Patriot League Tournament gets underway Thursday afternoon at Kaufman Field. The winner will claim the Patriot League's automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament.

Patriot League Softball Championship Release

2009 Patriot League Softball Tournament

For the eighth straight season, Lehigh will host the Patriot League Softball Tournament. Under the direction of veteran head coch Fran Troyan, the Mountain Hawks will host the tournament after securing the top-seed in the field. Lehigh went 17-3 in the Patriot League regular season. The Mountain Hawks went 9-3 against this year's tournament teams. Lehigh's lone Patriot League losses were to Colgate and Bucknell. Lehigh won every Patriot League series this season except one. The Mountain Hawks split their four-game set at Bucknell on the next-to-last weekend of the regular season. Against its openinground foe, Lafayette, Lehigh was 4-0. The Mountain Hawks won all 12 of their home games in Patriot League play. Lehigh is led by senior Lisa Sweeney, who became the first player in League history to be named Patriot League Pitcher of the Year four times. She was named to the All-Patriot League First Team for the fourth consecutive season. In Patriot League play this season, Sweeney was 11-1 with a 1.18 ERA. She struck out 88 batters while limiting foes to a .182 batting average. In addition, she was named Patriot League Softball Scholar-Athlete of the Year. Lehigh has won a League-best nine Patriot League Championships, including four in the past five seasons.

Second-seeded Colgate was picked to finish fourth in the Patriot League, but finished second in the regular season standings with a 12-8 mark. Led by three-time Patriot League Coach of the Year Vickie Sax, the Raiders finished the regular season with 15 more wins than they did a year ago. The Raiders have won three Patriot League Championships. Colgate is the only team besides Lehigh to win the Patriot League Championship in the past five seasons, doing so in 2007. Seniors Calla Yee and Tiana Tyesky helped pace the Raiders' resurgence. Yee was named First-Team All-Patriot League after batting .326 with 11 RBI and 18 stolen bases. In League play, she batted .353 and swiped 13 bases. Tyesky, a three-time Second-Team All-Patriot League performer, has batted .323 with four home runs and 32 RBI. She belted three home runs and drove in 18 runs in League play. Colgate is 6-6 against this year's tournament teams. The Raiders swept Bucknell while going 1-3 against both Lafayette and Lehigh.

Third-seeded Bucknell is back in the tournament for the second consecutive year under fifth-year head coch Heather Rakosik. The Bison have one Patriot League Championship to their credit, winning the title as the No. 2 seed in 1997. Bucknell is 4-8 agains this year's tournament teams. The Bison split against Lehigh and Lafayette, but dropped four straight against Colgate. Bucknell is the only Patriot League team to win mulitple games against Lehigh this season. On Tuesday, senior outfielder Ashley Beans received an All-Patriot League nod for the first time since her freshman season. Beans has batted .318 with 27 RBI. Of her 41 hits this season, 21 have been for extra bases.

Fourth-seeded Lafayette rounds out the tournament field. The Leopards entered the final weekend of the regular season in sixth place, but won three of four at Colgate to pass Army and Holy Cross for the final position. Patriot League Player of the Year Christina Giambrone has batted .398 in all games and leads the Patriot League with 14 home runs and a .832 slugging percentage. She leads the League with seven home runs in Patriot League play. On Tuesday, she was named to the All-Patriot League Team for the third time in her career. The Leopards went 5-7 against this year's tournament squads, winning three against Colgate and two against Bucknell. Lafayette is the only team in the League that has not won a Patriot League softball title.

This year's Patriot League Tournament will begin Thursday afternoon and conclude with Saturday's championship round.

Patriot League Notebook

Familiar Surroundings The Patriot League Softball Tournament has been held in just two locations - Patriots Park in Allentown, Pa. and Lehigh's Kaufman Field in Bethlehem, Pa. The tournament was held at Patriots Park from 1991 through 2001. Since then, the site has been determined by the top seed in the tournament. Since the change in format, Lehigh has been the top seed and the host of the tournament for eight consecutive seasons.

Championship Titles Lehigh leads the League with nine Patriot League Championships, including four in the past five seasons. Army is next with four championship victories. Colgate has three championships, with the most recent coming in 2007. Bucknell and Holy Cross have each been crowned once. Lafayette is the lone Patriot League team without a title.

Tournament Appearances Lehigh is the only team that has appeared in all 19 Patriot League Tournaments. Colgate is next with 18 tournament apperances. The Raiders' lone absence was in 2008. Bucknell has 14 tournament appearances, while Lafayette has 12. The Patriot League Tournament was a full-field event from 1991 through 1997 and again in 2000. During all of the other seasons, it has been restricted to the top four teams.

Champions By Seed The No. 1 seed in the tournament has won the championship 12 times in 18 seasons. The No. 2 seed has won five times, while the No. 3 seed has won once. Colgate is the lowest-seeded team to ever win the crown, doing so as the No. 3 seed in 1999.

History Made By Sweeney Lehigh senior Lisa Sweeney is the most decorated pitcher in Patriot League history. She received her fourth Patriot League Pitcher of the Year honor on Wednesday, becoming the first Patriot League player to win the award four times. She was also named Patriot League Player of the Year in 2008. She became the 25th player to be selected to the All-Patriot League Team in four consecutive seasons and the first since 2006. She is the seventh player in Patriot League history to receive First-Team All-Patriot League honors in four straight years. She is also the second player in the history of the League to be named to the All-Patriot League Team five times, joining Colgate's Tara McGroff. Sweeney was named to the All-League team as a pitcher and an outfielder in 2008.

2009 Patriot League Softball Scholar-Athlete of the Year Sweeney was voted the 2009 Patriot League Softball Scholar-Athlete of the Year, it was announced on Wednesday. The scholar-athlete of the year award is voted on by the Patriot League's softball sports information directors, who can not vote for their own student-athletes. Sweeney is the recipient of the Lehigh Graduating Female Athlete Award and the Lehigh Scholar-Athlete Award. In 2008, she was an ESPN The Magazine Third-Team All-American. She is also a two-time Academic All-District selection. Sweeney recently completed her second year as the co-chair of Lehigh's award-winning community outreach program, C.O.A.C.H. A native of Lumberton, N.J., Sweeney holds a 3.79 grade point average as a history major.