College notebook: Sayles hits milestone at Penn State Altoona
Junior forward Avana Sayles, a Venetia native and Peters Township graduate, is the leading scorer for the Penn State Altoona women’s basketball team and recently reached a career milestone.
Sayles scored her 1,000th career point in a 67-47 road win over nonconference opponent Marywood on Dec. 11. She is one of only six PSU Altoona women’s players to score 1,000 career points. She finished the game with 25 points to go along with 10 rebounds, three assists, three steals, and one blocked shot.
In the Lions’ next game, Sayles had another double-double performance in a loss to Alfred. She tied for game highs with 20 points and 10 rebounds, led all players with six steals and blocked three shots.
Sayles was named the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference Player of the Week on Dec. 16. It was her second Player of the Week honor this season.
The most productive game of the season for Sayles was when she tossed in 26 points against Penn State Beaver, and she has four games of at least 20 points. For the season, she is averaging 16.5 points per game to go with 8.5 rebounds.
Sayles is one of two former Peters Township standouts in the Lions’ starting lineup. Senior guard Jordan Bisignani averages 7.1 points and 4.3 rebounds per game and is shooting 35 percent from three-point range. Bisignani has a pair of 19-point games, against Lycoming and Penn College.
In football
Saint Francis linebacker Geno Calgaro, a Canon-McMillan graduate, was named to the 2024 FCS Football Central Freshman All-America Team.
Calgaro led Saint Francis with 70 total tackles, was third with 7.5 tackles for loss and forced two fumbles. He was tied for ninth in the NEC in total tackles.
N Mike Uremovich, who was the offensive coordinator for Waynesburg during the only season in which the Yellow Jackets qualified for the NCAA Division III playoffs, was recently hired as the head coach at Ball State.
Uremovich was the head coach at Butler University and led the Bulldogs to three straight winning seasons and the first national ranking in program history.
In basketball
Michael Dunn, a senior guard from Washington and a Trinity graduate, is the third-leading scorer for Edinboro, averaging 11.8 points per game.
A transfer from Shippensburg, Dunn is shooting 41 percent from three-point range. He is coming off his best performance of the season when he scored 22 points and made six three-point field goals in the Fighting Scots’ 83-55 rout of Bloomsburg On Saturday. The 22 points and six three-pointers were both season highs.
Dunn is not the only member of his family involved in college basketball. His sister, Mary Dunn, is in her second year on the staff as an assistant coach and director of basketball operations at Alabama-Birmingham. Dunn was a graduate assistant last year.
A former standout at Trinity, Dunn played at Youngstown State and Pitt, and professionally in Europe.
Washington & Jefferson freshman guard Michael Plasko was named the Presidents’ Athletic Conference Newcomer of the Week on Monday.
A South Fayette graduate, Plasko spearheaded the Presidents’ offense in a two-win week as he averaged 19.5 points per game. In W&J’s win over No. 19 Carnegie Mellon, Plasko led the team in scoring with 20 points while adding two assists. He shot 8-of-14 from the field and 4-of-6 from the free-throw line in the Presidents’ first victory over a ranked opponent since 2008-09.
In a win over Capital, Plasko dropped 19 points on 7-for-10 shooting and added one steal in the win.
Though he has not started a game, Plasko is W&J’s second-leading scorer, averaging 10.8 points per contest. He is shooting 49 percent from the field and 33 percent from three-point range.
Ava Leroux, a redshirt freshman forward at Elon, made his season debut for the Phoenix on Dec. 16.
A standout at South Fayette where she helped the Lions win back-to-back WPIAL championships, Leroux was seriously injured in a car wreck last December when she was home for the holidays. In her return to basketball, Leroux scored 10 points on 4-for-6 shooting and grabbed two rebounds in Elon’s 68-67 win at Long Beach State.
Courtney Dahlquist, a former Observer-Reporter Girls Basketball Player of the Year while at Trinity, is a senior forward for Campbell.
Dahlquist has helped the Camels to a 6-5 record while playing a difficult early season schedule. She averages 8.9 points per game and is shooting 43 percent from beyond the three-point line.
Dahlquist’s top scoring game of the season was 17 points against East Tennessee State. She made five three-pointers in that contest.
In volleyball
Waynesburg’s Krista Wilson, a sophomore outside hitter from Greensboro and a Mapletown graduate, received honorable mention on the All-Presidents’ Athletic Conference team.
Wilson ranked second on the Yellow Jackets with 1.91 kills per set and led the roster with 37 aces. She added 175 serve receptions and eight blocks. Wilson had eight matches with at least 10 points.
Wilson had three matches with double-digit kills, including a career-high 18 against Pitt-Greensburg. She had 13 kills and four aces in the Yellow Jackets’ five-set victory over Westminster.
In wrestling
Waynesburg sophomore Jessie Orbin, a Chartiers-Houston graduate, was selected as the PAC Wrestler of the Week for the second time this season on Dec. 10.
Orbin placed second in the 184-pound bracket at the Ohio Northern Invitational. He went 3-1 on the day with a technical fall and then a 5-2 decision over regionally ranked Owen Frizzell of Heidelberg in the semifinal bout. Orbin was edged 4-2 by Ohio Northern’s Ajay Locke, another ranked opponent, in the finals.
Orbin has an 18-3 record with each defeat coming against a ranked foe. He has three top-four performances at tournaments this season, including a meet title at 184 pounds at W&J.
Former Waynesburg Central standout Wyatt Henson is a redshirt junior at Lock Haven.
A national qualifier last year, Henson is ranked No. 23 at 141 pounds. He has a 9-4 record and a 44-8 mark in his Lock Haven career.
Compiled by Chris Dugan