Just For Kicks

By Al Chase

Williams’ run fueled
by local talent

Two more local soccer players earned national honors for their efforts on and off the field last fall.

Trisha Barbosa, a senior defender for Williams, has been named to the National Soccer Coaches Association of America NCAA Division III All-American first team. She is a Punahou graduate.

Jessica Catekista, a senior midfielder for Regis, was honored with a third-team NCSAA All-American Scholar-Athlete selection. The Kamehameha grad majors in accounting/business and maintains a 3.45 grade point average.

They join Kauai's Andrea Alfiler, the senior midfielder from Azusa Pacific, who was an NAIA first-team All-American and the NAIA Player of the Year.

Three Hawaii players also received NCSAA regional honors.

Shanon Hopkins, a senior striker for Linfield, and Mike Semenza, a junior striker for Willamette, were picked for the West Regional second and third teams, respectively.

Hopkins, a Hilo High School graduate, holds the Wildcats record for career game-winning goals (15). Semenza, who prepped at Punahou, was the Bearcats second leading goal scorer last fall with five.

Wanette Miyashiro, a junior midfielder for Hawaii, was a second team NCSAA West Region Scholar-Athlete selection. The Aiea High School graduate maintains a 3.72 GPA in business education.

Nate Adams, who graduated from Bradley in December, has been named to the 2001 Verizon/College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) District V Men's Soccer Academic All-America squad.

The Mililani resident and Iolani alum finished his career with a 3.41 cumulative grade point average (4.0 scale) and a bachelor's degree in management and administration.

Adams came off the bench to start the second half in Bradley's 2001 season opener and stayed in goal for every minute for the rest of the season, finishing with a 12-7-1 record, four shutouts and a 1.33 goals against average.

Nice promotion

Lisa Melendy, the women's soccer coach at Williams College the past 17 years, has left the coaching ranks to become the athletic department's senior women's administrator.

"It's considered a promotion, but I Iook at it as a new challenge and there is a lot of work to do," said Melendy, a 1978 Punahou graduate who played on one of the two Buffanblu teams when the school started girls soccer in 1975. Her coach was Bob Clague, who has coached the boys team for many years.

In 17 years at the helm of the Eph women's program, Melendy compiled a 195-55-21 (.758) record, won 10 Little Three titles and guided Williams into six NCAA Division III tournaments.

"The highlight was going to the final four a couple years ago," said Melendy. "Overall, there was a lot of satisfaction seeing this program grow along with the trends in women's soccer. We were 13-0 last fall in the regular season and we had a lot of come from behind wins."

After graduating from Smith College, Melendy did an internship there for a year, then spent two years doing graduate work at Massachusetts in the sports management program before taking the coaching position at Williams.