Five of CSI’s fall sports were recognized this week as CUNYAC’s Weekly honors were given out. For women’s cross country, Amina Huseinbegovic was awarded Rookie of the Week while teammate Joanna Villegas was given an honorable mention under the Rookie category. Alfonso Castaneda of men’s soccer was awarded his second Rookie of the Week award of the season. Also earning the top rookie award is Melissa Gelardi of women’s soccer while Paige Buono was given an honorable mention under soccer’s Player of the Week title. For women’s tennis, Illona Stoyko and Alena Vedeneeva were given honorable mentions as Player and Rookie, respectively. Ma Soccoro-Calleja was also given an honorable mention in the rookie spot for women’s volleyball.
Huseinbegovic earned her first weekly award as she crossed the finish line in 8th place on Sunday’s CSI Cross Country Invitational. With her best time of the season, the freshman timed in at 23.58. Fellow freshman, Villegas was right behind her finishing with a 24.30 time and coming in 15th place. With their times, the two helped the Dolphins to a third place finish, the team’s best of the season.
Despite taking three loses this week, Castaneda played a heavy role for the Dolphins offensively. With five shots including three on-goal, the freshman scored two goals in the 5-4 loss to Medgar Evers. On Monday evening, the Susan Wagner product scored the teams only two goals in the 5-2 loss against St. Joseph’s College-Patchogue. For the season, he leads the team in points that include six goals and one assist.
As a national leader in assists per game, Gelardi has captured her third Rookie of the Week award of the season. Helping the Dolphins to two wins last week against St. Elizabeth and Maritime, the freshman had an assist in each game. Gelardi already holds CSI single season record for assists. She currently has 11 while the previous CSI record was nine. As a 2010 CUNYAC All Star, Buono, earned her first CUNYAC recognition this season. She had a goal in each of CSI’s victories last week including one off of a Gelardi assist.
Stoyko and Vedeneeva are no strangers to the CUNYAC honor roll. Stoyko earned a Player of the Week honorable mention with her performance in four of CSI’s games last week. She won all four singles matches and 2-of-4 doubles matches. On the season, Stoyko is 9-3 overall in singles play. Freshman Vedeneeva took two wins in No. 1 singles and two in No.1 doubles alongside teammate Stoyko.
Earning her third honorable recognition as Rookie of the Week, Socorro-Calleja totaled 47 kills in four games. The freshman player also added 43 digs and nine service aces.
Catch all the fall sports as they wind down their regular season and prepare for the CUNYAC Playoffs. Stay tuned to www.csidolphins.com.
