Mansfield, Mass. – Le Moyne College juniors Josiah Gray (New Rochelle, N.Y./New Rochelle) and Bryanna Fazio (Watertown, N.Y./General Brown) have been named the 2017-18 Northeast-10 Conference Scholar-Athlete Sport Excellence Award recipient for their respective sports, as announced by the conference office on Wednesday morning.

Gray, a right-handed pitcher, received the award for baseball and Fazio, an attacker, was the women's lacrosse recipient. The duo are the 17th and 18th Le Moyne student-athletes to earn the honor over the nine years (27 seasons) of the program. Also on Wednesday, Gray and Fazio received Academic All-Conference accolades for the second straight year.

A Management major with a 3.834 GPA, Gray is the first Dolphin baseball student-athlete to be named the Sport Excellence Award recipient in the nine years of the awards program. The Sport Excellence Award and Academic All-Conference honors add to an impressive haul of recognition for Gray at what ended up being the conclusion of his collegiate career. In early June, two days after being selected 72nd overall by the Cincinnati Reds in the Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft (and subsequently signing a professional contract), he became the first Le Moyne baseball student-athlete to earn CoSIDA Academic All-America® honors since 1993 by garnering second team accolades. In early May, he was named to the CoSIDA Academic All-District® First Team for the second straight year. In late May, he was named the D2CCA and NCBWA National Pitcher of the Year and to each association's All-America First Team, while also being tabbed to the ABCA All-America First Team. During the third week of May, he was named the ABCA, D2CCA and NCBWA East Region Pitcher of the Year and to each association's East Region First Team. He started his collection of awards by being named the Northeast-10 Conference co-Pitcher of the Year and to the NE10 All-Conference First Team. His national Pitcher of the Year awards were the first by a Dolphin, while he is also the first Dolphin pitcher to earn All-America First Team honors and is just the second Dolphin overall to be tabbed to the ABCA All-America First Team (catcher Michael Fennell '82 in 1982). Additionally, Gray is the first Dolphin to be recognized by the ABCA since Eric Beaulac '09 (second team) and Chris Edmondson '10 (third team) in 2008. Gray earned his second straight NCBWA All-America recognition after being an honorable mention selection last year.

In 13 starts this season, Gray went 11-0 with a 1.25 earned run average and 105 strikeouts over 93 and one-third innings, while posting three complete games, one shutout and combining on two other shutouts. In six of his 13 starts, he did not allow an earned run, while he had four scoreless starts. He registered at least eight strikeouts in eight of his starts, including three games with at least 10 punchouts. In the first round of the NE10 Championship on May 8, he struck out a career-high 13 batters, the most by a Dolphin since Damian Powers '17 also had 13 on April 29, 2016. He is just the third Dolphin to win 11 games in a season and the first since Joseph Abone '79 (13-3) and Tom Fletcher '79 (12-2) both did so in 1979. His 105 strikeouts are tied with Powers for the second-most in a season in the program's history, while his ERA is the fourth-best by a Dolphin in a season and is the best by a starting pitcher. Gray is one of just three starting pitchers in Division II to have at least 10 wins and zero losses and is the only pitcher with 11 wins and zero losses as a starter. He finished the season ranked third nationally in ERA (best among pitchers with 65+ innings), tied for sixth in wins and seventh in WHIP (0.89). His 105 strikeouts are the second-most in the Northeast-10 and the third-most in the East Region.

A Biology major with a 3.967 GPA, Fazio is the second Dolphin women's lacrosse student-athlete to be named the Sport Excellence Award recipient (Maggie Monnat '16 in 2015 and 2016) in the nine years of the awards program. She is also just the third Le Moyne women's student-athlete (Monnat and Courtney Case (softball 2017)) to earn the honor over the nine years (103 women's recipients). The Sport Excellence Award and Academic All-Conference honors add to an array of accolades for Fazio at the conclusion of her third year on the Heights. In mid-June, she earned her first career IWLCA All-America recognition by being selected to the First Team. A month prior, she collected her second IWLCA All-Region honor with a spot on the East Region First Team. In between, she was tabbed the NCAA Championships Most Outstanding Player after recording seven points on six goals and one assist to lead the Dolphins to a 16-11 victory over Florida Southern College in the NCAA Championship game. Her first honor of the year was a Northeast-10 Conference All-Conference First Team selection.

A starter in all 23 games, she led the Dolphins offensively with a career-high 105 points on a career-best 78 goals and a career-high 27 assists, while also collecting a program-record 154 draw controls. She ranked second in the NE10 and sixth nationally with her 78 goals, while ranking second in the conference in points and 13th nationally. She led the NE10 and was fourth in Division II in draw controls. In addition to her program-record draw control total, she ranks second on the program's single-season chart in goals, third in goals per game (3.39) and fourth in points. She posted at least five points in 12 of 23 games, including at least six points in all three games of the NCAA Championships, while posting at least a hat trick in 14 games. She had 15 games with at least five draw controls, including nine games with at least eight.

The Northeast-10 Scholar-Athlete Sport Excellence Awards recognize student-athletes that have excelled both on the field of play and in the classroom. To be eligible, a student-athlete must have completed at least two consecutive semesters of full-time enrollment at their current institution, two total years of athletic eligibility, and maintain a minimum cumulative grade point average of a 3.30.

The NE10 Scholar-Athlete Sport Excellence awards are chosen by a vote of a committee of athletic administrators and Faculty Athletic Representatives (FAR). The Northeast-10 will honor one student-athlete per conference-sponsored sport each year with a total of 24 Scholar-Athlete Sport Excellence Award winners during the course of the academic year. The conference announced the fall and winter sport winners following the completion of their respective seasons.

Le Moyne Sport Excellence Award Winners
Drew Acquaviva – Men's Swimming & Diving – Winter 2010-11
Jack Venditti – Men's Lacrosse – Spring 2011
Drew Acquaviva – Men's Swimming & Diving – Winter 2011-12
Josh Klepfer – Men's Lacrosse – Spring 2012
Scott Thieke – Men's Swimming & Diving – Winter 2012-13
Josh Klepfer – Men's Lacrosse – Spring 2013
Keleenna Onyeaka – Men's Soccer – Fall 2014
Tim Buff – Men's Swimming & Diving – Winter 2014-15
Aidan Fuller – Men's Golf – Spring 2014-15
Maggie Monnat – Women's Lacrosse – Spring 2014-15
Tim Buff – Men's Swimming & Diving – Winter 2015-16
Aidan Fuller – Men's Golf – Spring 2015-16
Maggie Monnat – Women's Lacrosse – Spring 2015-16
Logan Thomas – Men's Lacrosse – Spring 2015-16
Tim Buff – Men's Swimming & Diving – Winter 2016-17
Courtney Case – Softball – Spring 2016-17
Josiah Gray – Baseball – Spring 2017-18
Bryanna Fazio – Women's Lacrosse – Spring 2017-18