As you know, UDPRIDE focuses a lot of attention on basketball, but we’re a conduit for any information relating to UD athletics that speaks of success, honor, and the spirit of competition. While the Flyer basketball team has been getting ready for the start of the 99-00 season, another Flyer team has been flying high all year en-route to a conference championship.

The UD womens soccer team captured its second straight A-10 regular season title by finishing 15-4 (10-1) on the coattails of two first-year players who have been as good as any player in the conference at their position. Though success to the team has been steady all year long, postseason honors for these two fine players were nothing short of a sporting injustice to anyone who follows college soccer from the steel bleachers.

Missy Gregg, a two-time All-American by way of Centerville and Archbishop Alter High Schools, lived up to her billing as one of the nation’s Top-25 recruits by polishing off 21 goals and 8 assists (50 points) to lead the A-10 conference in goals and scoring in her first year. Gregg was near the top of the nation’s statistical categories all year and finished the regular season ranked seventh in points per game and third nationally in goals per game. If those numbers weren’t impressive enough, Gregg’s seven game-winning goals placed her at the top of the A-10 and her 4-assist performance against St. Joseph’s tied the single-game high for assists in the country this year. Still not convinced? Gregg scored in 10 consecutive games — a feat that stands as the third-longest scoring streak in NCAA history.

On the other side, UMass forward Emma Kurowski — who was chosen as this year’s A-10 Player of the Year, managed just 30 points on the year and was held to 58 less shots over the course of the season compared to Gregg’s numbers. Kurowski managed 18 points in A-10 play while Gregg tallied 34. The numbers just don’t jive.

The fact that Kurowski is a senior and Gregg just a freshman tells the whole story. Were these postseason glamour awards an actual reflection of the player who deserves it, the veteran Kurowski would have the stats to support it. But she doesn’t, in fact, she doesn’t even come close. Both Gregg and Xavier forward Annette Gruber were slated to duel for the conference’s top honor, but now everyone is asking the same question to the coaches who voted for the award: “Are you lousy judges of talent or just blind, fat, and stupid?” Gregg is the consummate warrior: tall, lean, strong, long strides, and little wasted movement. Everything is done with precise calculation and effectiveness. If this is a second-best performance, the A-10 has standards not even Cindy Dawes or Mia Hamm could live up to as a first-year player.

While Gregg wound up with the We-Screwed-You-Over-For-The-Big-Award- But-Accept-This-Other-One-And-Shut-Up consolation prize, freshman goalkeeper Stephanie Weisenfeld received a big middle finger when she was omitted entirely from the First and Second Team All-Conference selections. The Buffalo Grove, IL, native led the entire conference in wins, winning percentage as a starter (13-3), goals-against average (1.03), and shutouts (7.5). In A-10 action alone, Weisenfeld also led all goalies in winning percentage (8-1), goals-against average (0.81), tied for the league lead in shutouts, and finished third in overall save percentage. What other measurements of a great goalkeeper are there?

More impressive is that Stephanie Weisenfeld accomplished such numbers on a team that suffered defensive breakdowns among the field players all season. Her stats weren’t cushioned by merely playing on a championship team, rather, her championship team was the beneficiary and result of impeccable goalkeeping. Time and time again Weisenfeld showed herself to be a rising star in the college soccer ranks yet got completely forgotten when it was time to single out those who were among the best of the best.

Unlike Missy Gregg — who is also her college roommate — Weisenfeld is the stick of dynamite in a bottle. Opposing forwards get big ideas about threading her goal mouth with score after score but the diminutive Mighty Byte — all 5’4” of her including those curly locks — gobbles up soccer balls like a Shop-Vac. Whether its holding her line, dishing out a kick-save, or flying through the air for a fingertip nab, Weisenfeld is the rock that holds the term paper from blowing out the window during exam week (and we all know that feeling).

As unbelievable as it is for these two talented individuals to get homered as they did, it speaks volumes about the coaches in the conference who voted for the awards. It’s no secret that the A-10 Conference isn’t a league that can bolster 3-4 NCAA teams every season — those privileges belong to the powerful soccer conferences of the ACC, Big-10, SEC, PAC-10, Big East, and to a lesser extent, the Big West and Ivy League. Were other coaches in the A-10 better judges of talent, this might not be the case. Knowing that they aren’t, maybe it’s no surprise they couldn’t pick out a clown from a police lineup.

The A-10 Conference should hold their head in shame and offer a public apology for such brash ineptitude. It’s no secret that the A-10 is governed by east coast people from east coast schools. For too long there’s been an overriding notion that anyone wearing a UMass or Temple uniform can crap thunder from here to the Heavens, but all I’m hearing from them is a bunch of crap. Until this changes, Gregg and Weisenfeld and Dayton fans may never get their just do. It’s the same old storyline of politics, asskissing, and old guard, and it just plain stinks — all the way to the Heavens.