Lindsay Gurska of Revere, Mass., Earns NFCA All-New England Accolades

2016 May 17

Lindsay Gurska was one of five members of the WPI softball team to have earned recognition from the National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) for their performance on the field in 2016.

Senior Clare Doolin (Newton, Mass.), junior Lindsay Gurska (Revere, Mass.), sophomore Nina Murphy-Cook (Roseville, Calif.) and sophomore Ama Biney (Worcester, Mass.) have been named to the National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) Division III All-New England First Team, as announced Monday. Freshman Caraline Wood (Averill Park, N.Y.) made the list as a third teamer. All five were previously honored by the NEWMAC with All-Conference nods.

Biney, also a first teamer in 2015, sports an Engineer-best .655 slugging percentage, 16 doubles, three triples and a league-best 51 runs. The Worcester product is also batting .394 with 56 total hits and 35 RBI. The centerfielder boasts a perfect fielding (67-of-67) and stolen base (29-of-29) 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 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.

Doolin is 16-3 with two saves, eight complete games, a 2.00 ERA and 132 strikeouts. She began 21 of her 25 pitching appearances thus far and has gone 112 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 ranking second the league with 8.25 strikeouts per game overall, and No. 1 with 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, leads the Engineers with seven home runs and 45 RBI to go along with a .404 batting average, a .637 slugging percentage, 59 hits, including 18 for extra bases and 37 runs scored. Behind the dish, Gurska touts a .997 fielding percentage (294-of-295). She has hit safely in 36 of 45 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 on Saturday ensured the Engineers a spot in the Medford Regional title round.

Murphy-Cook, a repeat first teamer, paces the Boynton Hillers with a .448 average with a NEWMAC-leading 73 hits and 45 stolen bases in addition to a .503 slugging percentage, five extra base hits and 42 runs scored. Nationally, Murphy Cook ranks third in stolen bases per game (1.00). The west-coast native enters the Super Regional with an 18-game hitting streak that includes a trio of hits in three games and four in six more, including the past two against Tufts. Murphy-Cook was also previously named the NEWMAC Tournament's Most Outstanding Player.

Wood is hitting .370 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.

WPI (38-7), ranked 22nd in the latest NFCA Coaches Poll, ousted three-time defending national champion Tufts from the NCAA Division III Softball Championship tournament this past weekend and host MIT Friday and Saturday in a best-of-three Super Regional.

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.