University of Richmond Athletics
Spiders Receive Weekly Atlantic 10 Accolades
03/31/2003 | Women's Tennis
March 31, 2003
UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND, Va. - Five student-athletes from the University of Richmond were honored by the Atlantic 10 Conference for the play in last week's contests as announced today by the league. Vanessa Bagnato (Manhasset, N.Y.) and David Donn (East Longmeadow, Mass.) were both honored as the women's and men's tennis co-Performers of the Week. Sam Sikes (Huntsville, Ala.) was selected as the men's golf Performer of the Week and Ruth Chege (Brooklyn, N.Y.) was named the women's track Performer of the Week. Rounding out the group, Polly Purcell (Ellicott City, Md.) was selected as the lacrosse Player of the Week.
Bagnato, a senior, compiled a 3-0 record in singles play and a 2-2 record in doubles action to help lead the Spiders to a 2-2 mark in last week's contests. In the Spiders' win over American on Tuesday, she took a 6-2, 6-4 win over Alexandra Zerkalova at the #2 spot. She was one of only two Richmond players to win in singles action against Virginia Tech with a 7-5, 7-5 victory over Carolyn Kramer at the #3 position. Again at the #3 slot, Bagnato defeated Laura Dickinson of Radford 6-0, 6-0 on Saturday morning. In doubles action, she teamed with Monika Peets at the #1 position to defeat the duo from American and paired with Cox to record an 8-1 win against Radford. Bagnato currently holds a 4-6 singles mark in spring dual matches and is 7-4 in doubles action.
Chege earns her first Atlantic 10 accolade after breaking a 24-year old record in the 10,000-meters at the Raleigh Relays. The Indoor A-10 Performer of the Year finished ninth in 35:22.27, more than 26 seconds faster than Deborah Snagg's previous record-holding time of 35:59.4 from 1979. This is the second A-10 Performer of the Week for women's track and field as sophomore Ashley Bell garnered the honor during the week of March 17th.
Donn posted a 4-0 record last week as he won his singles and doubles matches in the Spiders' two victories. In Richmond's win over #68 American, Donn defeated Tushar Garg 6-0, 6-7, 6-1 in the top position and paired with Jeppy Moss to record the 8-5 win at #2 doubles. Against Hampton, he registered a 6-3, 6-2 win over Glauco Mascimento at the #2 slot and again paired with Moss to earn to win doubles. Donn is 12-6 in singles at spring dual matches, playing at the #1 and #2 spots, and 10-6 in doubles play.
Purcell, garnering her second consecutive Player of the Week citation, netted six goals, including the game winner, in a 15-12 win over Ohio on March 29. This was Richmond's only game of the week and with the win improved its record to 4-4. Purcell also caused one turnover and won four draws controls. She leads the team in goals (22) and is tied for third in ground balls with 15.
Sikes earned his first career top-five finish, tying for fifth, to lead the Spiders to a fourth-place finish at the William and Mary Invitational, held March 24 and 25 in Williamsburg. He fired a 75-73-73--221 to earn his second career top-20 finish and move his season average to 76.6 (1072 strokes in 14 rounds), third-best on the team. His performance marks the highest finish of any Spider this season.