Sports briefs
BASEBALL
Former VCU pitcher Mick Mattaliano earned a promotion to the Frederick Keys, a Class A minor-league affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles. Mattaliano saved 27 games and posted a 1.24 ERA in 41 appearances with the Delmarva Shorebirds. In his four-year career at VCU, Mattaliano made 94 appearances out of the bullpen. He went 10-6 with a 3.42 ERA. He struck out 112 batters while walking 37.
MEN’S SOCCER
Senior Gerson Dos Santos (Sao Paulo, Brazil/E.E. Ruth Cabral Troncarelli) shared CAA Preseason Player of the Year honors with Old Dominion’s Trevor Banks, as announced by the conference. Dos Santos scored seven goals this past season while recording two assists. Dos Santos, along with teammates Dirk Dittrich (Stuttgart, Germany/Quenstedt-Gymnasium) and Jorit Loehr (Bremen, Germany), earned spots on the preseason all-conference team. Dittrich was part of a defense that shut out seven opponents this past season. Loehr scored seven goals and three assists while earning an All-CAA second team selection and All-Rookie honors.
In other news …
The VCU Men’s soccer team battled the eighth-ranked Maryland Terrapins to a scoreless draw in an exhibition Saturday evening at SportsBackers Stadium. Neither team could score in the two 35-minute periods and the 20-minute closing period.
WOMEN’S SOCCER
Senior defender Samara Stephen-Dowd (Vienna/Oakton) earned a place on the 2008 Preseason All-CAA team. Stephen-Dowd’s place on the team comes after being named to the 2007 CAA All-Tournament team. During the 2007 CAA Tournament, she played on a defense that held opponents to two goals in three games. Her defense held William and Mary’s Claire Zimmeck, the reigning CAA Player of the Year, scoreless in the semifinal match won by VCU on penalty kicks.
WOMEN’S TRACK AND FIELD
Jon Riley has been named the new head coach of the women’s cross-country and track-and-field teams. Riley had been the top assistant at Belmont University for the past three years where he specialized in sprints and jumps. Prior to coaching at Belmont, Riley was an assistant at Southeast Missouri State University, his alma mater. While at SMSU, the women’s program won three Ohio Valley Conference championships and multiple conference awards.