MAAC Student-Athletes of the Week (5.27.13)

5/27/2013 4:12:00 PM

MAAC Sports

Steve Burak – Fairfield University

Men’s Golf, Jr., 5-10, 160, North Easton, Mass./Thayer Academy

Steve Burak completed his first year with the Fairfield University golf team in dramatic fashion – winning the MAAC Championship with a record score and becoming the first Stag to play in the NCAA Regional Championship. Burak excelled in the classroom as well, with GPA’s over 3.1 in each of his first two semesters at the University, where he is a business major. Burak is the first Stag since to win the McLeod Trophy, presented to the MAAC golfer with the lowest overall score at the Championship, since 1997. He shot 208 in the 54-hole MAAC Championship, the lowest three-round score in league history and was the first player in MAAC history to shoot under 70 in two rounds of the event. The individual win at the MAAC Championship earned Burak a berth in the NCAA Tournament, where he played with 74 others at the University Club in Baton Rouge, La. He opened his NCAA career with a par on the first hole and shot 75 (+3) in the opening round at the 7,400-yard course. Burak was +4 in the final round as he moved up three spots on the final day to finish 48^th at the event.

Jenn Sansano – Niagara University

Softball, Jr., P, 6-0, Clarence, N.Y./St. Bonaventure

Sansano was an integral part of an impressive run for the Purple Eagles, winning five consecutive MAAC games including four shutouts to help NU earn a bid to the MAAC Tournament for the first time since 2010. The 2013 MAAC Pitcher of the Year set a new single-season strikeout record, fanning 185 batters in 156.2 innings of action, a mark that stands as the 20^th most in a single-season by a MAAC pitcher. She compiled a regular season record of 11-12 (6-3 MAAC) and posted a 2.14 ERA. The Clarence, N.Y. native threw the MAAC’s only no-hitter of 2013 on April 21 against Manhattan, striking out 10 batters in a 5-0 shutout. Just six days later against Rider, she was one out away from her second no-hitter before the feat was broken up with an RBI-single. Sansano finished the season 35^th in the nation with an average of 8.3 strikeouts per seven innings and a 1.33 ERA in conference action.