Contact: Christina Cracolici

Phone: (315) 228-6761

February 28, 2002

Upper Marlboro, Md. - Colgate University head coach Beth Spycher has been named the Patriot League Women’s Basketball Coach of the Year in her first season as the Raiders’ head coach in a vote of league coaches, while sophomore Malissa Burke (E. Grand Rapids, Mich./E. Grand Rapids) and freshmen Milaina Lagzdins (Oakville, Ontario/Nelson) and Allison Lipinski (Garfield Heights, Ohio/Garfield Heights) each earned all-league recognition.

Spycher guided the Raiders to a fourth place finish in the Patriot League, with the most Patriot League wins with seven since the 1994-95 season when Colgate tallied nine, leading the Raiders to a 13-16 overall record and a 7-7 mark in the Patriot League.

Sophomore guard Malissa Burke (E. Grand Rapids, Mich./E. Grand Rapids) earned second team all-Patriot League team honors after starting 28 games this season for the Raiders’ as their second leading scorer averaging 13.8 points per game.

Burke is second on the team in assists (74) and steals (49) and ranks among Patriot League leaders in scoring (9th), free throw percentage at 71.9 percent (15th), assists at 2.55 per game (13th), steals at 1.69 per game (12th), three point field goal percentage at 34.2 percent (10th) and three-point field goals made with 38 (12th).

Burke led the Raiders in scoring nine times this season including a career-high 30 points in a 75-72 win over Quinnipiac. With 38 three-pointers in 2001-02, Burke is fifth in three-point field goals in a season and sixth in career three-point field goals with 54. Burke who owns 672 career points, totaled 400 points this season increasing her total points by 128 points and her scoring averaging 4.4 points per game from her rookie season.

Freshman center Milaina Lagzdins (Oakville, Ontario/Nelson) earned all-Patriot League Rookie Team honors as the 6’1” center led the Raiders in rebounding averaging 7.2 rebounds while contributing a solid 7.1 points per game. Lagzdins started 15 games for the Raiders, including all 14 of Colgate’s Patriot League games and recorded four double-doubles in league contests.

Freshman guard Allison Lipinski (Garfield Heights, Ohio/Garfield Heights) joined Lagzdins on the All-Rookie team after being named Patriot League Rookie of the Week four times during the season. Lipinski, who broke the Colgate single-season three-point field goal record just 15 games into her rookie campaign, is the Raiders leading scorer and fourth in the Patriot League averaging 15.8 points per game.

Lipinski layed claim to four more records throughout the regular season, snapping a 21-year-old freshman scoring record with 459 points, surpassing the previous mark of 421 set by Lisa Glading in 1980-81, and toppled Colgate and Cotterell Court single-game records for threes in a game with eight in a 94-75 league win over Lafayette to close out the regular season en route to a career-high 28 points. Lipinski’s eight three-pointers against Lafayette gave her 96 on the season setting a new Patriot League single-season record for three-point field goals made, surpassing the previous mark of 93 set by Heather Donlon of Fordham in 1993.

With her regular-season ending performance, Lipinski has 459 points, 96 three-point field goals, 32 assists, 30 steals and five individual records.

The Raiders enter the Patriot League Tournament as the fifth-seed, by virtue of a tie-breaker, and will challenge fourth-seeded American University, Friday, March 1 at 2:30 p.m. in the second game of the Patriot League quarterfinal at The Show Place Arena in Upper Marlboro, Md.