The Ravens Basketball program had a two game sweep of the St. Rose Golden Knights this past Saturday, with the women’s squad winning 57-53 and the men 70-55. The victory, the men’s team would clinch their first winning season ten full years.

The Lady Ravens entered their contest in a virtual tie with the Golden Knights in the Northeast-10 standings, both with 9-5 conference records and 12-6 overall.  The team was led by a combined effort from seniors Jewel White and Marielle Giroud, who both ended with double-doubles.  White would finish with 17 points and 15 rebounds, while Giroud went for a game high 18 points and 14 rebounds.

(Photo By: Franklin Pierce Athletics)

Part way through the first half, after scoring her first nine points, White moved into sole possession of tenth place on the Ravens all time scoring list with 1,264.  The center currently leads the team in scoring with 17.7 points per game well as rebounds per game with 11.6.

Franklin Pierce went up against a St. Rose attack that was led by Ashley Rath who had 13 points, and Gabie Polce not far behind with 11.  However, it would appear that the Raven had the game in hand going into the locker room at half time with a 33-21 lead.  In the second half, however, the Golden Knights came back to finally take a 42-41 lead with just under eight minutes left in regulation.  Franklin Pierce would come right back to straight to Giroud on what seemed like every offensive possession.  Making their free throws and owning the rebounding battle by an amazing tally of 43-32, the Ravens would hold on to take the four point victory.

“We all played really well,” said Giroud.  “It’s great to be able to have everyone playing well at this point of the season.”

Head Coach Steve Hancock said, “It looked like we were shooting ourselves in the foot for a while there in the second half, but we got a lot of production from Marielle (Giroud) in the end which helped a lot.  Also rebounding the way we did today can never hurt you.”

The Men’s Basketball team found the same result as their counterparts with a few more fireworks to show for it.  Winning their match by a impressive score of 77-55 and improving their record to 14-5, the men would clinch their first season with a winning record in ten years.  The last time they finished with over a .500 winning percentage was in 2002, when the team ended with a 15-12.  This year also give the Men’s Basketball team the most wins that the program has had since 2003.

(Photo By: Franklin Pierce Athletics)

The Raven’s were led by freshman starter Ryan Vilmont.  The 6’5 forward finished the game going 8-12 from the field and had a game high 21 points, 15 of which came from five three pointers.  Vilmont also had four rebounds, three assists, and two steals in the victory.

The squad would shoot a very impressive 50 percent from the field for the game, including 42 percent from behind the arc.  Helping in that were sophomore forward Ellis Cooper, and senior center Adedamola Abu who each chipped in 12 points.

Head Men’s Basketball Coach David Chadbourne said, “The guys we have this year are kind of over-qualified for their roles.  We’ve got guys coming off of the bench like Andre Blackwood and Igor Lebov who help out a lot.”

Chadbourne went on to stress that the team owes its success this year partly to the fact that they’re healthy, which points to the Raven’s injury struggles in recent seasons.  Ellis Cooper had spent the better part of last year out due to injury and now playing his first full season with the team, he is among the team leaders in scoring, while at the same time being a constant influence as team captain.

The Raven’s continue their press towards the playoffs with a home game against St. Michael’s on Saturday at 3:30 p.m.  For more information on both basketball teams, please visit athletics.franklinpierce.edu.

athletics.franklinpierce.edu

The men’s basketball team snapped an eight game losing streak on Saturday when they defeated their division rivals, the St. Anslem Hawks 85-67 at the field house.

The Ravens went into the second half down by five, but would eventually catch fire in the second half, going on a 38-6 run to end the game.  The crowd erupted during the final second of the game as senior guard Jeff Manchester scored a buzzer beater giving him 1001 career points.  Manchester would end the game with 17 points.

Offensively, the Ravens were lead by sophomore guard Eric Jean-Guillaume and senior guard Kinard Dozier, each scoring 19 points overall.  Jean-Guillaume also gave out seven assists, took away two steals, and snatched seven rebounds.

Leading the offense for the Hawks was freshman forward Al Harris, who knocked down 21 points.  Behind Harris was senior guard Pat Luptowski scoring ten points.

Following the game, Ravens head coach David Chadbourne said, “We are a good team.  We should be able to do that every game.  I’m just feeling very good right now.”

The Ravens will be hosting Bentley at the field house on February 19^th at 3:30 p.m.

The orchestra holds their final note and she steals the audience into the palm of her hand with that one last bellow from her voice.  The crowd is melting, they aren’t sure how it is possible that a sound so beautiful can come from someone so young as the funny girl, Shealyn Berube.

Berube has been in the spotlight for the better part of her life, saying there is nowhere else she would rather be.

“I owe all my success to my parents.  They never took a break encouraging me to put myself out there every opportunity that I could get,” Berube said.

Shealyn’s mother, Katy, was very active in theatre growing up, and took no time passing that passion onto her children.  Berube first took the stage in small preschool plays, but that quickly turned into a passion she would carry throughout her life.

“I was pretty much singing and dancing as soon as I could walk.  I instantly just loved being in front of people and making them laugh,” Berube said.

Combining her comedic talent with an absolutely amazing singing voice, Berube gives any audience she acts in front of a rare treat, as it’s not every day a girl can make you fall over laughing while at the same time blow you away with her voice.              “She has the ability to give you goose bumps with that voice, and still can knock you off her feet with all the funny faces she makes on stage,” said father Mark Berube.

She used that to her advantage at the Greater Easthampton Junior Miss Competition, where Berube sang a song from her high school musical “Funny Girl” and took home first prize.  She will compete in the Massachusetts Junior Miss Competition at the end of February.

by AJ Berube
edited by Heather Riley

The Women’s Soccer team started out strong opening up the Northeast-10 Championship Tournament on Sunday, defeating Adelphi University 3-1.

The Franklin Pierce offense was a force to be reckoned with Sunday, having three different players scoring in the game.  Getting things started was junior midfielder Aya Noguchi in the third minute of the game, putting it in the back of the net off of a loose ball in front of the Adelphi goal.  The goal was unassisted and her third of the season.

Adelphi would answer later in the first half as midfielder Emily Dunne managed to get around Raven goalkeeper Jocelyn Leon, firing from the lower left corner to tie the game 1-1.

The Ravens would control the offense for almost the entire second half of the game starting with senior midfielder Tori Gikas getting her third goal of the season with a nice kick from her own rebound off the crossbar.  The assist went to freshman midfielder Margret Thorolfsdottir.

Gikas said, “My heart sank when it hit the crossbar the first time, then it hit Margret and fell to my feet.  It’s just a great feeling getting a goal in such an important game.”

Extending the lead in the 68^th minute was senior forward Shona Franklin getting her seventh goal of the season off a great pass from Amanda Panaro, putting the Ravens up 3-1 with just minutes left in the game.

After the game captain Amanda Panaro was excited about the win, but also kept in mind that the tournament isn’t over yet.

Panaro said, “Our team has come a long way since losing to Adelphi earlier this season and we still have a lot of teams to show that to, including Merrimack on Thursday.

Prior to Sunday’s contest Panaro was serious about getting even with a team that defeated the Ravens earlier this season.

Panaro said, “It’s a must-win situation for every game we have left, and it’s a chance to see a team that we played poorly against a few weeks ago.”

The two teams first met on October 8th, with Adelphi shutting the Ravens out 2-0.

The Women’s Soccer team now travels to Merrimack on Thursday for the Northeast-10 semifinal.  The winner will advance to the conference championship game.

senior pitcher Heath Wayslow struck out 13 batters over 6.2 innings

After an impressive victory in game one of a day/night double header against Assumption on Saturday, runs would continue to pour in for the Franklin Pierce baseball team in game two, blowing out the Greyhounds 11-2.

Assumption would score in the first inning for the second straight game, but would be held relatively silent by Ravens’ pitching for the rest of the afternoon.

The Ravens’ would take a 4-1 lead in the forth inning, finishing with a two run double by junior Derek Ingui over the center fielder’s head.  Ingui would get another RBI in the sixth inning, along with a two run single by senior Phil Hendricks, which would lead to a 9-1 Ravens lead.

Senior Heath Wayslow would enter the game in relieve in the second inning, and pitch a solid 6.2 innings to pick up the win.  Wayslow gave up only 4 hits and one run in his outing.  Wayslow also set a career high in strike outs with 13 in those 6.2, topping game one starter Brian Maloney, who reached that number in nine innings pitched earlier in the day.

Since the Saturday double-header, the Ravens won on the road against Umass Lowell 5-1 on Sunday, and dropped a tough game to Lowell at home on Tuesday.  They Raven’s return to the field on May 1^st at home for a double header against Adelphi University starting at 1:00 p.m.