Emily Smith and Laura Wachowicz were teammates with the strong Exeter Township girls’ volleyball team and now they are teammates on the Alvernia University women’s volleyball team.
And, their play is so similar that often-times people think they’re sisters according to coach Kelly Nicodemus. Both stand 5-feet-8 and both are in the school’s demanding nursing program as well.
“They are the quintessential one-two punch in every sense of the phrase,” the coach said. “They have grown by miles as players and young women since they joined the squad last year and, as a coach, I have to constantly remind myself that they are still only in their sophomore year and that the best is yet to come.”
Smith has 138 kills, 134 digs, 16 service aces, nine blocks and five assists. She’s scored 159.5 points as of Sept. 30. Wachowicz has 96 kills, 123 digs, 43 assists, 31 blocks and 10 service aces for the young Crusaders who were 5-8 overall and 1-3 MAC Commonwealth play after a 3-0 non-league loss to Susquehanna on Sept. 29. There are no seniors on the squad.
Both players go through the entire rotation as both defensive and offensive cornerstones. They only played front or back as freshmen.
“We’ve worked with both of them to become as comfortable swinging in the back row as they are in the front row to add another offensive dimension to their games,” Nicodemus said.
Nolan Perugini (Exeter Township) >> The Mary Washington junior was named Capital Athletic Conference Player of the Week in men’s tennis (Sept. 27) after he started the fall season 6-1 in singles and 5-1 in doubles primarily against Division I competition. At the Navy Invitational, he won four singles matches before dropping a 6-2, 6-3 decision in the E Flight final to Bucknell’s Max Kane. He and teammate Derek Hagino took the C Flight doubles title, beating a Bucknell team in the semifinals and a Temple duo in the finals.
Jill Braunsberg (Daniel Boone) >> The 5-foot-9 freshman setter/opposite is having a solid first season with the Wilmington, Del. women’s volleyball team. She has 106 assists, 74 digs, 56 kills, 12 service aces and nine blocks with a .212 hitting percentage after the Wildcats improved to 6-7 with a 3-1 mark in the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference after a 3-0 victory over USciences on Sept. 27.
Tucker Garner (Governor Mifflin) >> The 6-foot-1, 240-pounder is starting at defensive tackle as a true freshman with the 2-2 Susquehanna football team. He has eight tackles, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery. His freshman twin brother Lucas, a 5-foot-10, 225-pound fullback, has played in all four games and has carried the ball seven times for 28 yards as of Oct. 30.
Ali Snyder (Exeter Township) >> The freshman began her collegiate career playing with the La Salle women’s tennis team by defeating Julia Gan of Haverford 6-1, 6-1 in the Swarthmore Invitational on Sept. 12. She lost in the second round. In doubles, Snyder and fellow freshman Tiffany Theopil scored an 8-1 victory over a Haverford duo but dropped an 8-3 decision to a team from Swarthmore.
Jaxson Burns (Daniel Boone) >> The 5-foot-11 sophomore is tied for the lead in points with nine for the Millersville men’s soccer team. He has four goals and an assist and had the game-winning goal in a 6-0 victory over Pitt-Johnstown on Sept. 21. He had a goal and an assist in a 3-0 victory over Bloomsburg on Sept. 7. The Marauders are 6-2-2 overall and 3-1-2 in PSAC play as of Sept. 29. Burns had four goals and three assists as a freshman.
Lauren Mengel (Boyertown) >> The senior is a member of the defensive unit for the Bridgeport women’s soccer team which is 5-3 and has given up 11 goals with two shutouts as of Sept. 30. She hasn’t scored but had six goals and 11 assists in 64 games coming into this season for the Purple Knights. Mengel was also a 20-goal scorer with the Bridgeport women’s lacrosse team last spring.
Kenidy Kubitz (Oley Valley) >> The 5-foot-3 junior defender has picked up a pair of assists this season for the York field hockey team, the Spartans who stood 7-2 overall and 1-0 in Capital Athletic Conference play after a 7-4 non-league victory over Johns Hopkins Sept. 28. Kubitz had an assist in a 6-1 victory over Eastern Mennonite on Sept. 3 and an assist and a defensive save in a 3-2 triumph over Shenandoah on Sept. 10
Austin Freeman (Hamburg) >> The junior was named MAC Commonwealth Offensive Player of the Week on Sept. 26 after he led his Lebanon Valley men’s soccer team to a 4-0 victory over Eastern Mennonite on Sept. 24. He had two goals and an assist. On Sept. 14, he had two assists in a 3-1 triumph over Susquehanna. The Dutchmen are 7-1 to open the season with just a 2-1 double overtime loss to Penn State-Harrisburg blotting the record.
Dylan Shipe (Tulpehocken) >> The senior defender has helped the Albright women’s soccer team hold foes to just 11 goals in 10 games with three shutouts. She also has a goal and an assist to help the Lions post a 6-4 record as of Oct. 1 after losing their first three games. Junior Emily Saxon (Boyertown) also plays defense with the squad and picked up a goal.
Emily Hepner (Schuylkill Valley) >> The 5-foot-4 sophomore defensive specialist leads the Lycoming women’s volleyball team with 276 digs. She also has 24 assists and 13 services aces as of Sept. 30. She had a career-high 33 digs in a 3-2 victory over Mount Aloysius and 29 digs in a 3-2 loss to Medaille. Hepner had a big freshman season for the Warriors with 519 digs in 31 matches and 113 sets, averaging 4.59 digs a set.
Michael Wamsher (Fleetwood) >> The sophomore has finished first for the Immaculata men’s cross country team in all three meets thus far. He finished 18th in the Cairn Invitational on Sept. 1 with a 4K time of 16:42.08. Two days later (Sept. 3, he finished 35th in the Colonial States Athletic Conference Pre-meet with an 8K time of 37:24.3. On Sept. 17, Wamsher finished 31st in the Delaware Valley Invitational with an 8K time of 36:52.93.
Madison Deeds (Brandywine Heights) >> The freshman forward has played in seven games with one start for the Providence field hockey team which stands 8-2 overall and has a 2-0 mark in the Big East Conference as of Sept. 30. Deeds picked up her first collegiate point when she had an assist in a 5-1 victory over UMass-Lowell on Sunday, Sept. 25 in Providence, R.I.
Natalie Wilkinson (Twin Valley) >> The 5-foot-5 junior forward has three goals and five assists for the Salisbury field hockey team. She had the game-winners in a 5-1 victory over King’s and a 5-0 triumph over Johns Hopkins and she had a goal and two assists in a 6-0 victory over Cabrini. The Sea Gulls are 7-1 after a 3-1 victory over The College of New Jersey on Sept. 24. Their game at Lynchburg on Sept. 28 was cancelled because of bad weather.
Kris Lizins (Twin Valley) >> The junior has had a solid start with the Clarkson men’s cross country team this fall. He opened by finishing ninth in the Cardinal Classic in Plattsburgh, N.Y. with a 5K time of 16:29 and then followed that up with an eighth place finish at the Badger Invitational in Johnson, Vt. with and 8K time of 28:09.3. Lizins improved his time when he finished 18th out of 107 runners at the Ronald C. Hoffmann Invitational on Sept. 24 in Canton, N.Y.
