Bowling Green State University Athletics
Harris Named MAC Male Scholar-Athlete of the Week
September 17, 2002 | Football
Sept. 17, 2002
Cleveland, Ohio - Bowling Green's Josh Harris (football) and Eastern Michigan's Jennifer Nighswander (volleyball) were named the MAC Scholar Athletes of the Week on September 17, 2002.
Harris (Jr., 3.06, interpersonal communication, Westerville, Ohio) passed for 311 yards and scored three touchdowns as the Falcons remained unbeaten with a 51-28 home win over Missouri. He caught a touchdown pass and ran for two more scores. The game marked his second career contest with over 300 yards passing. Harris was 16-of-31 through the air against the Tigers. He accounted for 377 yards of total offense, as he also had 66 yards rushing and 34 receiving. Harris has rushed for two touchdowns in four consecutive games dating to last season. The TD catch was the second of his career. The Falcons are 5-0 since Harris was named the starting QB late last year, and BGSU has scored more than 40 points in four consecutive games, a school record.
Nighswander (Jr., 3.40, mathematics , Essex, Ontario) earned the Western Illinois Tournament's Most Valuable Player honor after leading the Eagles with 48 kills in the 13 games and also adding 50 digs, 10 service aces and six block assists. Nighswander had a career-best four aces in the win over the Big Ten's Iowa and posted three double-doubles in four matches of the Tournament. She led EMU to a 5-0 record for the week, including the Eagle's second straight tournament title, as EMU won the tournament with wins over Western Kentucky, Western Illinois, Iowa and Northwestern State (La.). Nighswander. For the week, Nighswander had 55 kills, 62 digs, 12 aces and seven block assists to lead the Eagles' winning streak to 10 matches and the second-best start in school history.
The MAC Scholar Athlete of the Week honor is presented to a MAC male and female student-athlete who has a cumulative grade point average of 3.0 or better and performs well during that week's competition. The winners are selected by one of the conference's faculty athletic representatives.
Female Nominees:
Bowling Green: Jill Conover (soccer, Sr., 3.81, computer science, Grand Island, N.Y.) scored the lone goal of the match in the Falcons' 1-0 win over Pittsburgh. The goal was the 17th of her career, moving her into sole possession of third place on the school list. She extended her own BGSU career record to 57 points with the goal. The score marked her sixth match-winning goal of her career, setting a new school record. BGSU went 1-1 last week, with the win over Pitt and a 1-0 loss to Missouri. Both matches were played at the Ohio State Tournament.
Buffalo: Kathryn Henry (volleyball, So. 3.30, undecided, Buffalo, N.Y.) earned All-Tournament honors at the Syracuse Invitational after leading the Bulls to a 2-1 record. She recorded 34 kills, 25 digs and 11 service aces in the three matches. Henry had career-highs of 16 kills and seven aces in UB's three-game victory over Colgate in the tournament opener.
Central Michigan: Kendra DeVries (volleyball, Sr., 3.34, child development and science, Fremont, Mich.) led CMU to a 2-1 record last week while being named to the all-tournament team at the Raider Challenge hosted by Wright State. DeVries totalled 54 kills (4.5 kpg) and nine total blocks (0.75 bpg), along with a .485 hitting percentage. She tallied a season-high 23 kills in each of CMU's wins, including a match-high 23 against Austin Peay. Against Austin Peay, DeVries had just one error in 39 attempts for a season-high .564 hitting percentage.
Miami: Susan Poll (volleyball, Jr., 3.71, operations management, Grand Rapids, Mich.) led Miami to its first tournament title since 1999 as the RedHawks seized the TCU Invitational crown last weekend. Poll earned tournament MVP honors, the first of her career, and was on only the second all-tournament team of her career (the other was the Miami Classic in August). For the week, Poll, a front row player, averaged 3.60 kills and had a .350 hitting percentage to lead the team. Never having served up an ace in her career, Poll registered four this week, including a career-high two against San Jose State. Against the Horned Frogs she paced the team with 4.00 kills per game and a .394 hitting percentage. In the opening match of the tournament against Stephen F. Austin, Poll averaged 3.50 kills per game and produced a .440 hitting percentage.
Ohio: Christel Schiering (soccer, Jr., 3.47, early childhood education, Cincinnati, Ohio) scored five goals in two Ohio wins. Her hat trick against Akron tied the school record held by Rachael Najjar for the most goals in a single game. She has scored at least one goal in every game this season and is just six goals away from becoming the school's all-time leader in career goals scored.
Toledo: Corrie Hasenjager (soccer, Sr., 3.36, multi-age education, Dayton, Ohio) scored the game-winning goal early in the second half with her fourth goal of the season in UT's 3-2 win over Ball State.
Western Michigan: Sara Cultra (soccer, So., 3.16, physical education, Mattawan, Mich.) scored three goals in a pair of matches. She scored WMU's only goal against Detroit and had a pair of goals against Buffalo in a 5-0 Bronco win. Cultra had a total of five shots for the week and has already surpassed her goal total from her freshman season. She ranks second on the team in goals (3) and points (6).
Male Nominees:
Buffalo: Scott McMahan (football, Sr., 3.04, business management, Huntington Beach, Calif.) tied a career-high with 11 punts versus Connecticut averaging 42.1 yards, including a career-best 70 yarder in the first half. Two of his punts were downed inside the 20-yard line. The 70-yard punt bettered his previous best by 10 yards set in last season's meeting at Connecticut.
Central Michigan: Kyle Croskey (football, Sr., 3.62, industrial education, East Lansing, Mich.) helped the Chippewa offensive line lead CMU to a 24-17 come-from-behind win against Akron on Saturday. The Chippewas trailed 17-3 at the half. CMU improved to 3-0 after winning just three games all of last season. CMU's offensive line allowed the Chippewas to gain 469 yards of total offense, including a season-high 242 yards rushing. The line also did not allow a quarterback sack.
Eastern Michigan: David Lusky (football, Jr., 3.33, construction management, Novi, Mich.) recorded a team-high 13 tackles, including three solo tackles, one tackle for loss and one fumble forced, in helping EMU to their first win of the season.
Kent State: Kevin Jamieson (football, Sr., 3.45, biological science, Niles, Ohio) spearheaded the Golden Flashes' offense to 565 total yards (the most since 1999), including 372 rushing yards in a 37-34 win over Cal Poly on Sept. 14.
Northern Illinois: Josh Haldi (football, So., 3.94, accountancy, Madison, Ohio) completed 18-of-33 passes for a career-high 273 yards against No. 22-ranked Wisconsin and threw a career-long 53 yard pass.
Ohio: Kevin Kerr (football, Sr., 3.12, electrical engineering/computer emphasis, Cincinnati, Ohio) was successful on both field goal attempts in the pouring rain, snapping a string of eight straight misses dating back to last season. He hit from 48 yards in the first quarter to give the Bobcats a 3-0 lead. Kerr hit a 20-yarder in the second quarter to cut Florida's lead to 7-6. He set the school career field goal record with his first boot, passing Steve Green and Gary Homer with 29. Kerr tied Green for second on the attempts list with 48 (Homer has 60). He punted six times for 262 yards (43.7 per punt) with a long kick of 50 yards.
Toledo: Dontà Greene (football, Sr., 3.07, recreation & leisure studies, Springfield, Ohio) caught six passes for 52 yards in the Rockets' 31-21 loss at Minnesota on Saturday. He also returned five kickoffs for 134 yards.
Previous Winners:
Previous Winners Female Week 1 (Sept. 4) Katie Kuzor, UA (volleyball) Week 2 (Sept. 10) Andrea Kremer, MIA (cross country) Week 3 (Sept. 17) Jennifer Nighswander, EMU (volleyball)Previous Winners Male Week 1 (Sept. 4) Maurio Medley, KSU (football) Week 2 (Sept. 10) Todd Ludden, UB (cross country) Week 3 (Sept. 17) Josh Harris, BGSU (football)
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