SLIAC Weekly Release - March 23

This week in the SLIAC is a weekly review of the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. Read the recaps of the prior weeks results and highlights of upcoming events. You can also find the latest standings, statistics, schedules and awards.

HEADLINES

Feature Friday with Amanda Gilliland (March 18, 2016)
This week's Feature Friday we sit down with Spalding University catcher Amanda Gilliland. Amanda talks about everything from where she would would like to visit to what super power she would like to have.....MORE

65 Student-Athletes Named to SLIAC Winter All-Academic Team (March 18, 2016)
A total of 65 student-athletes from around the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference have been named to the SLIAC Winter All-Academic Team, marking the third consecutive year for an increase in winter honorees and the most recipients since the 2006-07 season.....MORE

Westminster Takes Top Spot On Winter Canned Food Drive (March 22, 2016)
Westminster College finished first among conference schools in the winter period of the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SLIAC) Canned Food Drive. Westminster collected nearly 1,000 cans during the basketball season, marking just the second time in three years of the competition's existence the Blue Jays have won a collection period.....MORE

SLIAC PLAYERS OF THE WEEK

The SLIAC Players of the Week are honored for their performances during the week. Click on the sport link below to see the full list of 2015-16 Players of the Week. For this week's SLIAC Players of the Week release - HERE

Baseball l Softball l Men's Tennis l Women's Tennis

SLIAC SPRING STANDINGS

AROUND THE SLIAC

The Blackburn baseball team had a big weekend last week, picking up three wins including taking two of three games in a weekend series against Spalding. The Beavers' Jared Jones leads the team with a .390 batting average while Matt Mokriakow is hitting .352 with seven RBI and Brock Hill is hitting .340 with a team high eight RBI. The Beavers play host to Northland in a double header this Saturday.

Eureka sophomore Kerrigan Dura was named the SLIAC Softball Hitter of the Week; hitting .500 with 14 runs batted in over eight games last week. Dura finished the week with three triples, four doubles, and six runs scored with an .833 slugging percentage. Dura is hitting .526 with one home run and 17 runs batted in this season. Eureka is currently 8-2 overall this season.

Fontbonne University softball head coach Bill Rosner picked up his 200th career win on Tuesday, leading the Griffins to a 10-2 win over North Central. Rosner is in his eighth season as Griffins head coach, taking over the program in 2009. He has guided the Griffins to six consecutive NCAA Division III Tournaments and is a three time SLIAC Coach of the Year award winner.

Greenville currently sits in first place in the SLIAC All-Sports Trophy standings with 62.5 total points. The Panthers have had six of their seven athletic teams finish no lower than second place with the volleyball team capturing a first-place finish. To see the full standings of the 2015-16 SLIAC All-Sports Trophy race click HERE

The Tigers baseball team returned from Florida with a three game series against Monmouth, taking one of the games. The Tigers' Jarred Boyer held Monmouth to just one run on three hits while striking out two. Iowa Wesleyan pushed across two runs in the sixth inning to secure the 2-1 win with four different Tigers picking up a hit in the game. Iowa Wesleyan is now 4-7 overall this season and begins SLIAC play with a three game series against Eureka College beginning Thursday.

The Highlander baseball team fell in their SLIAC opening series, losing two of three games to Eureka last weekend. The Highlanders will now face Webster in a road double header this Saturday. MacMurray is currently 8-10 overall and are led by an offense that is hitting .327 this season. Collin Antoine is hitting .434 with 11 runs batted in and Drew Johnson is hitting .413 with three home runs and a team high 19 RBI. A total of five Highlanders have already plated double figures in RBI.

The Principia men's tennis team rolled to a 9-0 win over Knox College in their first match back from a spring break trip to California. The Panthers' Joey Sander recorded a 6-0, 6-0 win at #1 singles and teamed with Brody Swan at #1 doubles for a win. Nat Kenworthy also blanked his singles opponent at the #3 spot. Jule Kitchingman added a pair of wins, taking #2 singles and teaming with Aaron Switzer at #2 doubles.

Spalding's Korie Vire picked up his second SLIAC/Diamond Sports Hitter of the Week honors this past week after hitting .520 through six games. Vire had five multi-hit games, notching a hit in all six games on the week, and finishing 13-for-25 at the plate. He drove in five runs and added six stolen bases; with two three hit games.

Webster University announced the addition of Marshall Moon to their volleyball staff. Moon will join the staff after spending the last two years as the assistant coach at Lewis and Clark Community College. Moon is also currently a coach of the High Performance Girls 15 club team and previously worked with H2 St. Louis Volleyball team and Team Elite St. Louis. He is a graduate of Cornell College and replaces Matt Ryan, who assisted the Gorloks for the last three seasons.

It was a big day for the Blue Jays baseball team last week, not only sweeping Robert Morris-Peoria but seeing two career records fall in the wins. Senior pitcher Deion Hughes broke the career strikeout record and Tyler Branneky, a senior infielder, set a new mark for total bases. Westminster is now 9-5 overall and 2-1 in the SLIAC.

THIS WEEK'S SLIAC SCHEDULE

To see a complete schedule of this week's SLIAC action click HERE

KEEP UP WITH THE SLIAC ON SOCIAL MEDIA

Be sure to keep up with the SLIAC using various social media platforms. You can follow us on Twitter (@sliac) HERE or Facebook (St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference) HERE Don't forget to share your game day photos from around the conference by using #SLIACtion on your tweets.

Be sure to check out the SLIAC You Tube Channel. Each Friday is the Feature Friday series featuring interviews with student-athletes, coaches, and administrators from around the SLIAC. You can also view our previous feature videos, where you can get to know our student-athletes outside of athletics and get an idea of what it is like to be a NCAA Division III student-athlete, as well as conference tournament highlight videos. Check out all of our YouTube Videos HERE