Ama Biney of Worcester, Mass., Garners NEWMAC Softball Recognition

2016 May 11

Ama Biney is one of six members of the WPI softball team, including head coach Whitney Goldstein, to have earned recognition from the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) for effort on the field in 2016.

Junior Lindsay Gurska and head coach Whitney Goldstein became the first from WPI to be named the NEWMAC Softball Athlete of the Year and NEWMAC Softball Coach of the Year, as voted upon by the league's head coaches. Gurska was joined on the first team by sophomore Nina Murphy-Cook and senior batterymate Clare Doolin (Newton, MA). Sophomore Ama Biney and freshman Caraline Wood were named to the second team.

Gurska, an Academic All-District I honoree, leads the Engineers with seven home runs and 44 RBI to go along with a .413 batting average, a .652 slugging percentage, 57 hits, including 17 for extra bases and 37 runs scored. Behind the dish, Gurska touts a .996 fielding percentage (275-of-276). She has hit safely in 34 of 42 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.

Murphy-Cook, a repeat first teamer, paces the Boynton Hillers with a .453 average with a NEWMAC-leading 68 hits and 43 stolen bases in addition to a .513 slugging percentage, five extra base hits and 38 runs scored. Nationally, Murphy Cook ranks third in stolen bases per game (1.02). The west-coast native enters the NCAA tournament with a 15-game hitting streak that includes a trio of hits in three games and a pair in six more. It was the second conference honor in four days for the sophomore, who was named the NEWMAC Tournament's Most Outstanding Player on Sunday.

Doolin, a second teamer in 2014, is 14-3 with two saves, seven complete games, a 2.12 ERA and 122 strikeouts. She began 19 of her 22 pitching appearances thus far and has gone 99 innings. 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 8.63 strikeouts per game overall, and 9.23 against NEWMAC opponents, Doolin's ERA shrunk to 1.75 in league games.

Biney, a first teamer in 2015 and an Academic All-District I selection in 2016, sports an Engineer-best .672 slugging percentage, 15 doubles, three triples and a league-best 49 runs. The Worcester product is also batting .397 with 52 total hits, 32 RBI. The centerfielder boasts a perfect fielding (60-of-60) and stolen base (26-of-26) percentage. She is also second in doubles and stolen bases among NEWMAC student-athletes. Biney legged out the game-winning single to claim the NEWMAC crown on Sunday 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.

Wood is hitting .395 with 51 hits, including nine doubles and four homers, 28 RBI and 24 runs scored in her inaugural campaign. The rookie logged a hit in 28 games and was successful more than once in 16 contests. She enjoyed a 4-for-4 game against Saint Joseph's (ME) and went 2-for-2 against Springfield and Westfield State.

Goldstein's Engineers, which have not had a season with less than 30 wins, recently set the school record for single-season wins in any sport with their 35th on Sunday. The Crimson and Gray won their first regular season and tournament title in the NEWMAC era and will be making their second consecutive NCAA appearance after reaching the Super Regionals a season ago. Bolstered by Murphy-Cook and Biney, the Crimson and Gray rank eighth nationally in terms of stolen bases per game (2.31). The Engineers also tout the eighth-best fielding percentage in Division III (.970).

WPI, ranked 22nd in the latest NFCA Coaches Poll, heads to three-time defending national champion Tufts for the four-team NCAA Division III Softball Championship regional this weekend. The Engineers will open play against Salve Regina at 3:30pm on Friday.

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.