Pace Heads to NCAAs: Daily Sports Digest, March 6, 2012

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Women’s Basketball Earns At-Large Bid To The NCAA Tournament

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Earn #4 Seed; Will Face #5 Franklin Pierce In the Opening Round on Friday at 8:30 pm

PLEASANTVILLE, N.Y. - The Pace University women’s basketball team received an at-large bid as the #4 seed to the 2012 NCAA Division II Women’s Basketball Tournament. This marks the 16th time the Setters have been selected to the NCAA Tournament in school history and the tenth trip for Head Coach Carrie Seymour in her 20 seasons at Pace.

Pace finished the season at 20-8 overall and were 16-6 in the Northeast-10 as they clinched the #3 seed in the NE-10 Conference Tournament. The Setters faced off against #6 seed Assumption College in the Quarterfinal round of the tournament, a game Pace won by a score of 60-50. The Setters advanced to the NE-10 Semifinals where they were clipped by Southern Connecticut State University 48-47.

The Setters were led by NE-10 First Team selection and senior Brittany Shields (Cold Spring, NY/Haldane) who averaged 17 points and 10 rebounds on the season. Senior Carol Johnson (New City, NY/Cardinal Spellman) was second in scoring with 10.3 points and led the team with 2.8 assists per contest. Senior Kerri White (Flushing, NY/Archbishop Molloy/Manhattan College) is third in scoring with 10 points per game and leads the team with 65 three-pointers on the season. Shields is fourth in the NE-10 in scoring and ranks second in rebounds, while White leads the NE-10 in three-point shooting as she is shooting 44.8% from long range.

The First Round of the 2012 NCAA Division II Women's Basketball Tournament begins on Friday, March 9th. The number one seeded Bentley University will host the East Region.  Bentley will take on #8 seed University of District Columbia at 6 pm on Friday and will face the winner of the Pace-Franklin Pierce match-up on Saturday at 7:30 pm.

In the rest of the region, #6 Holy Family University will take on #3 Dowling College at 12 pm, while #2 Southern Connecticut State will face #7 LIU-C.W. Post at 2:30 pm, with the winners facing each other in the second round on Saturday at 5 pm.

Pjura’s Big Day Leads Setters to Win Over Mercy

Setters Open Season at 4-0; Best Start Since 2007

PLEASANTVILLE, N.Y.- James Pjura (Shelton, CT/Shelton) went 4-for-5 on the day with three RBI’s as the Setters erased an early deficit to defeat the Mavericks of Mercy College 11-4. The Setters are off to their best start since 2007 at 4-0, while the Mavericks fall to 0-3 overall.

Mercy got on the board in the opening inning as the Mavericks sent eight batters to the plate in the inning and pushed across four runs. The Setters answered in the top of the second as they cut the score to 4-1.

Pace rallied in the third as the Setters capitalized on a Mercy error to score their first run of the inning. Pjura ripped a two-run double to score Joe Solemeno (Holbrook, NY/Sachem East) and Joe Lombardi (Briarcliff, NY/Briarcliff). Later in the inning, Michael Liguori (Rockville, Centre, NY/Chaminade) singled in Pjura with the go-ahead run as the Setters led 5-4 after three innings.

The Setters added to their lead in the fourth as Kyle Turnier (Waterford. CT/Waterford) doubled and Lombardi was hit by a pitch. Patrick Chaputian (Sea Cliff, NY/North Shore) singled to drive in Turnier, while Pjura singled to score Lombardi as Pace took a 6-4 lead. Pace added three runs in the fifth and one more in the sixth as the Pace bullpen closed the door on the Mavericks.

Jonathan Silva (Staten Island, NY/Tottenville) started and went the first four innings, allowing four runs on five hits. Neil Pezzullo (Harwich, MA/Harwich) picked up his second win of the year (2-0), as he tossed two shutout innings in relief, while he struck out three. Jonathan Hornung (Calverton, NY/Riverhead) tossed one scoreless inning, allowing one hit and struck out one. Brian Sundberg (Westbury, NY/W.T. Clarke) came on for the final two innings, allowing a hit, while striking out three.

The Setters return to action for their on Tuesday, March 6 when Pace will play Saint Thomas Aquinas College at Provident Bank Park in Pomona, NY at 3 pm.

Looking for Soccer?

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Check out this page on its website for more details.

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