Westmoreland Campus Clippings: Jeannette's Robert Kennedy transfers

Robert Kennedy is on the move again.

The former Jeannette football standout is leaving East Carolina and will transfer to Old Dominion in Norfok, Va.

Kennedy, a 5-foot-10, 183-pound safety, played in five games last season as a junior, recording 13 tackles and three pass breakups for East Carolina.

He spent two seasons at Lackawanna, a junior college in Scranton, where he helped lead the team to the NJCAA national title game in 2019. He had 34 tackles, 31/2 sacks and four interceptions as a sophomore.

Kennedy will go from one FBS conference to another, leaving the American Athletic Conference for Conference USA, which houses Old Dominion, a school that offered him a scholarship when he was at Jeannette.

Kennedy entered the NCAA Transfer Portal on Dec. 1, according to 247sports.com.

He will have two years of eligibility at ODU.

Men’s basketball

Lehigh: Sophomore guard Reed Fenton (Latrobe) picked up a pair of Patriot League wins over his former teammate, Holy Cross senior guard Austin Butler (Latrobe) in a weekend series in Massachusetts.

Fenton had 14 points in a 75-72 win Saturday, and Butler finished with 11 points and seven rebounds. On Sunday, Lehigh won 82-74 as Butler had 13 points and seven rebounds. Fenton battled foul trouble and tallied five points in 17 minutes.

Women’s basketball

Point Park: Senior point guard Michelle Burns (Hempfield) scored 24 points in 7-of-29 shooting, grabbed nine rebounds and handed out seven assists in a 76-54 win over Bryant & Stratton-Buffalo.

Marietta: Freshman guard Olivia Gribble (Norwin) had five points in nine minutes in her college debut, an 82-80 win over Otterbein. The next game, she added nine points on three 3-pointers, in 15 minutes as Otterbein turned the tables in an 108-75 victory.

Saint Joseph’s: Grad transfer Alayna Gribble (Norwin) returned to the lineup from an injury and scored 17 points, including 5 of 9 on 3-pointers, to lead the Hawks to a 63-61 win over George Washington.

West Virginia Wesleyan: Senior Abi Gabauer (Norwin) scored a career-high 26 points on 11-of-14 shooting and grabbed eight rebounds for the Bobcats (0-6) in a 103-68 loss to West Virginia State. Her previous high was 24 points in a game during her freshman season.

Wrestling

Bucknell: Junior 165-pounder Zach Hartman (Belle Vernon) picked up two wins, on a pin and an injury default, and freshman 141-pounder Kurtis Phipps (Norwin) went 2-0 with major and regular decisions in a round-robin match against Sacred Heart. Bucknell won 16 of 20 matches.

Iowa: Senior Spencer Lee (Franklin Regional), the top-ranked 125-pounder in the nation, scored a takedown 31 seconds into his match on the way to a pin as No. 1 Iowa defeated No. 15 Minnesota, 35-4. Lee has 23 pins in his career with 18 of them coming in the first period.

Pitt: The 12th-ranked Panthers fell to No. 4 North Carolina State, 27-6, as redshirt junior Micky Phillippi (Derry) and redshirt sophomore Luke Kemerer (Hempfield) provided all the scoring.

UNC-Pembroke: Sophomore Logan Seliga (Belle Vernon), a 133-pounder, is off to a 4-0 start with one technical fall and a pin. Last season, Seliga was a NCAA Super Regional champion and a NCAA qualifier.

Women’s indoor track and field

Carlow: Senior Olivia Miller (Ligonier Valley) broke the school record in the long jump with a mark of 5.01 meters, good enough for fifth place at the Indiana Wesleyan Invitational. She took first in the triple jump with a distance of 10.83 meters.

Navy: Senior Sam Orie (Hempfield) broke the program record in the weight-throw with a mark of 19.16 meters.

Point Park: Freshman Allison Plassio (Norwin) finished fourth in the 800-meter run in 2 minutes, 46.85 seconds, and sophomore Natalia Zucco (Greensburg Salem) took eighth place in the 800 run at the Tiffin Revolution Classic in Ohio.

Men’s volleyball

Penn State: Sophomore John Kerr (Derry) had three kills and an assist for the 11th-ranked Nittany Lions in a 3-0 loss to No. 14 Ohio State.

Men’s lacrosse

Seton Hill: The Griffins begin the season ranked fifth in the Nike/US Lacrosse Magazine Preseason Top 20. They return their top nine scorers and goalkeeper from a team that was 6-0 last season when the coronavirus pandemic hit.

Grad student Logan Maloni led the Griffins with 31 points, and grad student Ryan Manbeck and seniors Robert Hofseth and Zack Estabrooks also had double-figure goal totals. Seton Hill is scheduled to start the season Feb. 27 at Chestnut Hill.

Honors

Westminster: Alex Bailey (Franklin Regional) was honored for her achievements in women’s tennis on the Westminster All-Decade teams. Bailey is the only Titans player to go a full season without a loss in singles (21-0). She is second in school history in career singles wins (69) and doubles wins (70). She only lost seven times at both spots. Her winning percentages in both are tops in program history.

Bailey played on the 2012 team that won a PAC title and advanced to the PAC Championship.