Sports News: Fall 2001

Monday, October 8, 2001

QUINTET NAMED MORAVIAN ATHLETES OF THE WEEK

BETHLHEM, PA --- Seniors Elissa Gerstel (Warminster, PA/William Tennent HS) of the field hockey team, Corinne Kleinsmith (Shillington, PA/Governor Mifflin HS) from the women's tennis squad and Heidi Wolfsberger (Moosic, PA/Riverside HS) of the women's cross country team, junior Eric Gustafson (Collingswood, NJ/Collingswood HS) from the football squad and sophomore Tim Shannon (Leesport, PA/Schuylkill Valley HS) off the men's soccer team have been named the Moravian College Student-Athletes of the Week for their performances last week.

Gerstel, a forward, led the Moravian field hockey team to a pair of Commonwealth Conference victories last week, the first two for the Greyhounds in nearly three years.  Gerstel had a goal and assisted on the winning goal in a 2-1 victory over Albright College.  She setup the only goal in a 1-0 victory at Juniata College.  Moravian is currently 4-6 overall and 2-4 in the Commonwealth Conference.  The Greyhounds return to action on Thursday, October 11th versus Wilkes University.

Kleinsmith led Moravian to another undefeated Middle Atlantic Conference Commonwealth season as the Greyhounds closed out the regular season with a 7-0 mark in the MAC Commonwealth and head to the MAC playoffs with a 13-0 overall record.  Kleinsmith played in three of Moravian's four matches last week and earned singles and doubles victories in each contest.  Moravian will host Lycoming College on Wednesday, October 10th at 2:00 p.m. in the MAC Semifinals.

Wolfsberger help the #1-ranked Moravian cross country team take third place of 35 schools at the Paul Short Invitational last weekend.  Moravian, which has been ranked in the first spot the last three weeks, ran in the invitational race with 33 NCAA Division I and II schools and defeated 31 of them.  Only Penn State University and Bucknell University defeated the Greyhounds.  Wolfsberger placed fifth of 269 individuals with a time of 21:26.88 on the 6,000-meter course (1,000 meters longer than usual for a Division III race).

Gustafson, a fullback, had his best day as a greyhound despite Moravian dropping a 39-35 MAC game to Juniata College on Saturday.  Gustafson had a career-high 121 yards (the 20th highest single game total in Moravian history) on 14 carries.  He had a 57-yard run that setup one of the Greyhounds touchdowns in the game.  Moravian is 1-3 on the season and hosts Delaware Valley College on Saturday, October 13th at 1:00 p.m.

Shannon, a midfielder and Commonwealth Conference Player of the Week, led the Greyhounds to a 3-0 mark last week with four goals and an assist including two game winners.  Shannon had both goals in Moravian's 2-1 victory at DeSales University including a header off a corner kick with 2:30 remaining to win the match.  He had the first goal of the match in a 5-0 shutout of College Misericordia and added an assist later in the match.  Shannon tallied the first goal in a 3-1 Commonwealth Conference victory over Lebanon Valley College.  Moravian is currently 7-2-2 on the season and plays at Delaware Valley College Monday at 4:00 p.m.