Ama Biney of Worcester, Mass., Earns All-ECAC Accolades

2016 Jun 13

Ama Biney was one of four WPI student-athletes to earn All-ECAC accolades in the sport of softball.

Softball head coach Whitney Goldstein along with sophomore Nina Murphy-Cook, sophomore Ama Biney, senior Clare Doolin and junior Lindsay Gurska were recognized by the ECAC for their on-field performance in 2016. Goldstein was named the ECAC Division III Softball Coach of the Year while Murphy-Cook, Biney and Doolin were named All-ECAC first teamers and Gurska headlined the second team.

Goldstein led her squad to a 33-6 regular-season mark as WPI captured its first regular-season and conference tournament titles in the NEWMAC era. The third-year coach, who has not won fewer than 30 games in any of her three seasons, also helped WPI reach the NCAA Division III Softball Championship Super Regionals for the second consecutive campaign. The program's winningest coach earned her 100th career victory at Amherst and picked up her 100th WPI win against Salve Regina in the NCAA tournament. The 2016 Engineers set the school record for single-season wins in any sport, and gender, with a 38-9 record.

Murphy-Cook, a repeat first teamer, paced the Boynton Hillers with a .456 average with a NEWMAC-leading 77 hits in 169 at-bats (182 appearances) and 48 stolen bases in addition to a .509 slugging percentage, five extra base hits and 42 runs scored. Nationally, Murphy Cook ranked third in stolen bases and stolen bases per game (1.02). The West Coast native ended the season with an 20-game hitting streak that included a trio of hits in three games and four in six more, and a pair in each of the last four games.

Biney, a second teamer a year ago, sported an Engineer-best .639 slugging percentage, 16 doubles, three triples and a league-best 52 runs. She batted .388 with 57 total hits and 35 RBI while touting a perfect fielding (72-of-72) and stolen base (30-of-30) percentage. She was also second in doubles and stolen bases among NEWMAC student-athletes. The local product legged out the game-winning single to claim the NEWMAC crown and added to her conference trophy case after garnering first-team All-NEWMAC honors this winter for the Crimson and Gray championship women's basketball team. The department sophomore of the year hit .645 with two homers, four doubles and two triples en route to NEWMAC Player of the Week after joining softball about to depart for FL after playing in NCAA tournament the day before.

Doolin is 16-4 with two saves, nine complete games, a 1.96 ERA and 138 strikeouts. She began 22 of her 26 pitching appearances and tossed 118 innings on the season. Doolin notched four double-digit strikeout performances with 11 in the season opener versus Emmanuel and a career-high 16 against city and conference foe Clark. In addition to leading the league with 8.19 strikeouts per game overall, and 9.23 per game against NEWMAC opponents, Doolin's ERA shrunk to 1.75 against conference foes during the regular season.

Gurska, the NEWMAC Player of the Year, led the Engineers with seven home runs and 45 RBI to go along with a .388 batting average, a .612 slugging percentage, 59 hits, including 18 for extra bases and 37 runs scored. Behind the dish, Gurska touted a .997 fielding percentage (305-of-306). She has hit safely in 36 of 47 games and notched more than one in 16 contests. Gurska enjoyed a five-game multi-hit streak the second week of April and had a 4-for-4 game in the second game at Wheaton on March 26. Her RBI single in the eighth inning against Tufts ensured the Engineers a spot in the Medford Regional title round.

About Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Founded in 1865 in Worcester, Mass., WPI is one of the nation's first engineering and technology universities. Its 14 academic departments offer more than 50 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in science, engineering, technology, business, the social sciences, and the humanities and arts, leading to bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees. WPI's talented faculty work with students on interdisciplinary research that seeks solutions to important and socially relevant problems in fields as diverse as the life sciences and bioengineering, energy, information security, materials processing, and robotics. Students also have the opportunity to make a difference to communities and organizations around the world through the university's innovative Global Projects Program. There are more than 45 WPI project centers throughout the Americas, Africa, Asia-Pacific, and Europe.