Northwestern University Athletics
Center Court Holds End-of-Year Awards Ceremony
5/21/2003 12:00:00 AM | General
May 21, 2003
EVANSTON, Ill. - The Center Court Board of Directors held their annual season-ending awards function Wednesday night at the Omni Orrington Hotel in Evanston, presenting their annual awards to some of Northwestern's outstanding female athletes.
Center Court is a booster group devoted to the women's athletic programs at Northwestern University.
The Torch of Center Court Scholarship was awarded to Erica Rose (Cleveland, Ohio/Hawken School) from the swim team. Rose, a junior, can more than hold her own in a swimming pool, but it is in open water that she truly excels. One of the top open-water swimmers in the world, Rose was named the 2002 Open Water Swimmer of the Year by USA Swimming. She is a multiple national champion in both 5K and 10K open-water swims and has represented the United States in races as far away as China and the Cayman Islands. This past winter, Rose was able to shine as a Wildcat as well; after posting four first-place finishes at Michigan State and Eastern Michigan, she was named the National Swimmer of the Week by CollegeSwimming.com. For all of her swimming accomplishments, Rose has been equally successful in the classroom -- the psychology major currently holds a 3.71 grade point average.
Cross country runner Rachel Evjen (Eau Claire, Wis./North) was the recipient of the Outstanding Senior Athlete Award. Evjen enjoyed a standout career at Northwestern, leading the team in every race she ran during the last three years. A two-time All-Big Ten and three-time All-District honoree, Evjen led the Wildcats to the NCAA national championship meet this season, a first for the program since it was brought back as a varsity in 1998. She holds Northwestern's top six times for the 6-kilometer distance, led by a 20:52 she clocked at this year's Midwest Regional meet when NU punched its NCAA ticket.
Two women were honored with the Jean Youngs Baddeley Spirit Award: fencing's Melissa Dattalo (Wheaton, Ill./Wheaton-Warrenville South) and soccer's Alana Stamas (Washington, D.C./The Field School). Dattalo helped the Wildcat fencers to a 27-6 overall record in 2002-03. In her first season as a regular starter she had 40 wins in foil, 29 more victories than she had in her first two years at NU combined. Dattalo also placed ninth at the Midwest Regionals and fell just shy of qualifying for the NCAA Championships. Stamas, meanwhile, was an integral and inspirational member of the soccer program for four years as a walk-on, and also helped out as a softball manager this past spring. Both Dattalo and Stamas have been multiple Academic All-Big Ten honorees.
Soccer player Molly Greene (Lake Forest, Ill./Lake Forest) was honored as the Center Court's Scholar Athlete. Greene had another standout season on the pitch for the Wildcats, earning second-team All-Big Ten honors (she was a first-team honoree in 2001). Despite playing sweeper for almost the entire season-where she anchored a unit that allowed fewer than two goals per game-Greene scored the first two goals of her collegiate career and added an assist.
Eleven other women were accorded senior recognition by Center Court: Brie Brown (softball), Carmen Cosgrove (swimming), Laura Evans (cross country), Juli Fomenko (field hockey), Aileen Guiney (soccer), Rachel Johnson (swimming), Kendra Mesa (field hockey/lacrosse), Kelli Meyer (volleyball), Brett Nakabayashi (softball), Lauren Schwendimann (softball) and Stacy Spenser (field hockey). In addition, the women's golf team was cited for having the highest combined team grade point average at 3.37.
