College Notebook: Locals impress on and off playing field

Jenny Garrity of Lynn/Classical High was honored earlier this fall by the National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) as a 2013 All-American Scholar Athlete.Garrity, a senior on the Emmanuel College women?s softball team, has been a three-year starter, having spent time pitching, as a designated player and as a first baseman. As a junior, she hit .367 for the Saints with seven doubles and a home run. She had a .450 slugging percentage and was second on her team in runs batted in with 28.Garrity has also excelled in the classroom. The education major is a two-time Great Northeast Athletic Conference Academic All-Conference player with a cumulative average that?s north of 3.5. Garrity played for the Classical High softball team, graduating in 2010.Anna Maria College junior Nichole Lowe of Saugus scored the game-winning goal to lead the AMCATS field hockey team to back-to-back New England Collegiate Conference championships and NCAA bids.Lowe, who earlier this week was named to the NECC All-Conference team, scored an unassisted goal in sudden-death to lift her team past Regis College last week at Paxton for the NECC championship. Lowe also took home tournament MVP honors.The Saugus resident has had an outstanding season for the AMCATS, finishing with 11 goals and 14 assists. Her 36 points placed her second among conference leaders. Lowe has earned NECC Player of the Week honors twice this season.Former Saugus High goalie Nick Hegarty is a freshman on the Franklin Pierce University hockey team. Hegarty started in net for the Sachems for four years and was an Item All-Star as a senior. He did a post-graduate year at Bridgton Academy in Maine, where he was the primary goalie and recipient of the Coaches Award.Another former Saugus High hockey player, Kurt Rodrigues, is on the Franklin Pierce roster as well. Rodrigues, a freshman forward, was a four-year varsity player for the Sachems and a career 100-point scorer. He was also a four-year varsity baseball player. After leaving Saugus High, he played at Vermont Academy and he played junior hockey for the New England Huskies.Megan Forti wrapped up a very successful soccer career at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. The former English High star was named WPI?s female Athlete of the Week for Nov. 4 after scoring two game-winning goals last week to help the Engineers secure a NEWMAC tournament bid for the first time since her freshman year. Forti finished the season with a team-high 13 goals and nine assists for 35 points.The Bentley University men?s basketball team opens its season this weekend in the annual Tip-Off Classic at the Dana Center.The Falcons, who closed out last season with a four-game winning streak, have two players returning who averaged more than 15 points per game, and one is Jasper Grassa of Lynn/Classical High. Grassa, a senior guard who averaged 15.2 points per game, is only the second player in program history to rack up at least 80 threes in consecutive seasons. He enters his final year eighth on Bentley?s all-time three-point list and he?s only 49 points away from becoming the program?s 49th 1,000-point scorer.Jeanette Anderson of Lynn/Lynn English will be looking to keep up the torrid pace she has kept the last few years as a guard on the Caldwell College women?s basketball team. Anderson, a senior, averaged 15.4 points and 9.7 rebounds last year. She is Caldwell?s all-time leader in field goal percentage (.496) and ninth in scoring (1,278 points). She?s sixth in rebounding (815).Caldwell was the unanimous choice to finish first in the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference North Division in the CACC Preseason Poll.