Johnson named volleyball Co-Player of the Week Takefusa earns men's soccer Player of the Week Welcome tabbed women's soccer Co-Player of the Week

RINDGE, N.H. (October 28, 2002) - Three Franklin Pierce student-athletes were named Player of the Week in their respective sports by the Northeast-10 Conference this afternoon. Senior Mandy Johnson (Orange, Mass./Maher) was named co-Player of the Week in volleyball, while junior Bjorgolfor Takefusa (Reykjavik, Iceland) earned men's soccer Player of the Week and sophomore Meghan Welcome (Haverhill, Mass./Haverhill) was tabbed women's soccer co-Player of the Week.

Johnson earns the first NE-10 Player of the Week honor in program history after leading the Ravens to a 3-0 clip and its fourth-straight victory last week. She led the team in kills (5.33 per game), service aces (1.11 p/g), blocks (0.56 p/g) and hitting percentage (.455), while also averaging 2.89 digs per game.

Johnson led the Ravens offense with 14 kills and 17 digs in a 3-0 win against Colby Sawyer College and went on to help the Ravens post a perfect 2-0 record at the Stonehill Invitational over the weekend. Johnson totaled a team-high 14 kills, four aces, four blocks with a .444 kill percentage in a 3-0 win over host Stonehill College and registered 20 kills, five aces, and hit .548 in a 3-0 shutout of University of Bridgeport.

Johnson currently leads the team with 3.96 kills per game, which ranks second in the Northeast-10 Conference, and 0.97 service aces, which ranks first. She averages a team-best 0.89 blocks and .385 hitting percentage, which ranks fourth among all Conference competitors. She ranks second on the squad with 2.68 digs per game.

Johnson has been instrumental in leading the team to its best Northeast-10 record in the program's three seasons since joining the Conference in 2000, as the team has already eclipsed last year's win total by three matches.

Takefusa earns his first Player of the Week honor of the season (second career) after totaling ten points by netting five of the Ravens eight goals in a 2-1 week to guide the team to the No. 6-seed in this week's Northeast-10 Conference Tournament.

Takefusa netted both Franklin Pierce goals, including the game winner 2:10 into double-overtime in Monday's 2-1 win at Stonehill College. Takefusa tallied his first hat trick of the season to lift the Ravens to a 6-2 win at American International College on Saturday. Trailing 2-1 after 25-minutes, he knotted the match with a direct kick in the 35th minute before scoring the game winner just three minutes later. Takefusa added an insurance marker in the 66th minute to put the Ravens up 4-2.

Takefusa has taken over the team's scoring lead with 31 points, which ranks fourth in the NE-10, and 13 goals (four game winners) - good for third in the Conference.

Welcome earns her second Player of the Week honor of the season as she totaled eight points by netting four of the Ravens nine goals in a 2-0 week.

Welcome registered her second hat trick of the season to lead Franklin Pierce to a 5-0 win over Saint Anselm College on Tuesday that clinched the Ravens second-straight NE-10 regular season championship. She netted the game winner in the 39th minute then her second and third markers were part of a three-goal Ravens flurry in a 15-minute span to start the second half.

Welcome also recorded the game winning strike in Sunday's 4-1 comeback win over Southern New Hampshire University. The goal came just 3:56-into the second half after the Ravens trailed 1-0 at the intermission. The two game winning strikes last week increased her team-leading total to seven for the season.

Welcome leads the Northeast-10 Conference with 40 points and 17 goals to go along with six assists. Her 40 points is just one shy of the program record for points in a single-season by a US-born player set by Beth Ondrick in 1990.

The Franklin Pierce volleyball team (12-9, 4-7 NE-10) returns to the hardwood tomorrow night with a Conference match at Southern Connecticut State University at 7 p.m. The Franklin Pierce men's soccer team (9-4-4, 6-3-4 NE-10) opens Northeast-10 Tournament play with a quarterfinal match at No. 22-ranked Merrimack College tomorrow at 2 p.m. The No. 4-ranked Franklin Pierce women's soccer team (13-0-2, 12-0-2 NE-10) is the top-seed in the NE-10 women Tournament and hosts eighth-seeded Pace University tomorrow at 2 p.m.