Monday, July 1 officially marks the beginning of a new chapter in the storied history of the BIG EAST Conference.
Through a series of features that will appear each day this week, SHUPirates.com will provide a snapshot of Seton Hall and its place as a founding member of the league, marking the Pirates' accomplishments over the first three-plus decades and outlining the vision for the future.
Today, we remember the Top-Five Team Performances in Seton Hall history during the BIG EAST era. This feature is sponsored by College Hunks Hauling Junk. Visit www.chhj.com for more information.
Seton Hall Men’s Soccer – 1986 BIG EAST Championship The Seton Hall men’s soccer team won three-straight BIG EAST Championships from 1986-1988 and is the only program in school history to complete a conference three-peat. The start of that reign of dominance came in 1986 when Ed Kelly’s team led by Peter Matischak, Ian Hennessy and Pat Hughes won Seton Hall’s first men’s soccer title. The Pirates wrapped up the regular season with a 16-1-2 record and
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| | Ian Hennessy |
a 3-0-1 mark in BIG EAST play to qualify for the conference tournament first time in school history. Behind Hennessy’s epic four-goal, nine-point performance in an 8-2 victory over Boston College in the BIG EAST semifinals Seton Hall advanced to the conference title game, where Hennessy scored twice more in a 3-2 win over Syracuse en route to BIG EAST Tournament Most Outstanding Player honors. While Hennessy was the star of the postseason, Matischak’s 1986 campaign still stands as the most prolific in the Seton Hall soccer program’s storied history. He set school records with 23 goals and 57 points on the way to being tabbed as the BIG EAST Player of the Year and helped the Pirates finish the season with an 18-2-2 overall record and a No. 7 ranking in the final national poll. The 18 victories still stand as the most in a single season in school history and Seton Hall scored 69 goals that year, also a school record.
Seton Hall Baseball - 1987 BIG EAST Championship The Seton Hall baseball program has been known historically for its strengths of pitching and defense, but one team broke the mold, and established itself as one of the great all-round teams, particularly
offensively, in Seton Hall and BIG EAST history. The 1987 Pirates, bolstered by the “Hit Men,” won a program record 45 games and its first BIG EAST Championship. An offensive juggernaut, the team featured 10 future Major League Baseball Draft picks and five All-Americans. Leading the charge was the “Hit Men” in the middle of the Pirates’ order, All-Americans Marteese Robinson, Craig Biggio and Mo Vaughn. Robinson set program records that still stand for single-season batting average, hits, total bases, stolen bases and RBIs and was named Collegiate Baseball’s Co-National Player of the Year and BIG EAST Player of the Year. Biggio set the Pirates’ record for runs scored and batted .407 with 14 home runs and 30 stolen bases. The Pirates’ catcher was an All-American and First Team All-BIG EAST selection. Vaughn belted a team-record 28 home runs and also set record a record for slugging percentage, while tying Robinson in RBIs. He was named An All-American and BIG EAST Freshman of the Year. Collectively, Seton Hall batted .355, hit 92 home runs and stole 234 bases, all current single-season Pirate records. The team scored a record 627 runs, breaking the prior team record by 151 runs. Seton Hall’s 50 home runs in BIG EAST games remains the conference record. After a dominating regular season, the Pirates continued their winning ways at the BIG EAST Tournament. The Hall beat Connecticut, 6-2, and Villanova, 18-1, followed by a come-from-behind 10-9 win over the Wildcats in the title game to win their first conference crown. Seton Hall also became the first team to win the double-elimination tournament in just three games. Vaughn was named Most Outstanding Player of the tournament with a .500 batting average, seven RBIs and seven runs scored.
Seton Hall Men's Basketball - 1992-93 BIG EAST Championship The 1992-93 Seton Hall men’s basketball team made a memorable run under legendary head coach P.J. Carlesimo to the program’s second BIG EAST Championship. The Pirates posted a program-best 14 wins against BIG EAST opponents, including a perfect 9-0 home ledger, en route to the Regular-Season Title for the second straight year. Seton Hall entered Madison Square Garden as the top seed at the BIG EAST Tournament, rallying to the conference crown behind BIG EAST Player of the Year Terry Dehere. The Pirates advanced to the semifinals with an 83-69 victory over a tough Georgetown team that went on to National Invitation Tournam
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| | (l-to-r) Terry Dehere, Daryl Crist and Jerry Walker |
ent championship contest. Seton Hall used a 28 point performance from Dehere, which included four clutch three pointers, to upend Providence 69-60 earning a berth in the title game. Seton Hall saved one of the top offensive performances in BIG EAST Tournament history for last with a 103-70 rout of Syracuse to capture the championship before 18,958 fans in the World’s Most Famous Arena. The Pirates unleashed a sweltering 60.3% (41-68) team shooting performance en route to the most lopsided championship game victory (33) in BIG EAST history. Seton Hall Athletics Hall of Famer Arturas Karnisovas led the way with 20 points and 10 rebounds, and fellow Hall of Famer Jerry Walker poured in 19 points in the triumph. "I still maintain it was the most talented team Seton Hall has ever fielded," said Tom Luicci, Seton Hall's former beat writer for the Star-Ledger. "The best team in the sense of the word "team," was the 1988-89 group, but the most talented was 1992-93. You had the leading scorer in school history (Dehere), an all-Big East player at forward (Karnishovas), a first-round draft pick at center (Luther Wright), the best defender in the Big East and one of the toughest players ever to wear a Pirate uniform (Jerry Walker), a 1,000-point scorer off the bench (Dan Hurley) and an eventual 10-year NBA guy on the bench (Adrian Griffin)." Karnisovas, an All-BIG EAST Second Team selection, and Walker, an All-BIG EAST Third Team honoree, joined Dehere on the All-Tournament Team. Dehere was named the Tournament’s Most Valuable Player averaging 22.7 points in the Pirates’ three victories.
Seton Hall Women’s Basketball – 1994 BIG EAST Tournament The Seton Hall women’s basketball team made back-to-back runs to the BIG EAST Championships game in 1994 and 1995, but that first runner-up finish represented the final conference games in the remarkable career of Hall of Famer Jodi Brooks and the Pirates’ most dominant BIG
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| | Jodi Brooks |
EAST season to date. After posting a 16-2 record in the BIG EAST regular season Seton Hall earned the No. 2 seed in the conference tournament and advanced to the BIG EAST Championship game for the first time in program history thanks to victories over Syracuse, 53-41, and Pittsburgh, 66-54. The Pirates fell to top-seeded Connecticut, 77-51, in the championship game, but Brooks was named to the All-Tournament Team after scoring 18 points in the championship tilt and averaging 14.3 ppg during Seton Hall’s tournament run. Seton Hall head coach Phyllis Mangina was named the BIG EAST Coach of the Year after leading her team to a school record 16 BIG EAST victories. The Pirates qualified for the NCAA Tournament for the first time in program history, hosting First and Second Round games at the historic Walsh Gymnasium where they defeated Vermont and Texas to earn a berth into the Sweet 16. Seton Hall’s remarkable season came to an end with a narrow 64-60 loss to Penn State in the regional semifinals in Austin, Texas. Brooks ended her career by averaging 18.2 ppg in three NCAA Tournament games and had her number retired shortly after the season’s end, finishing her stellar four-year career ranked fourth in school history with 1,558 points and second with 441 assists. She was named a Kodak Honorable Mention All-American and the New Jersey Metropolitan Player of the Year. Seton Hall, which earlier in the season achieved the first national ranking in program history, came in at No. 14 in the final poll of the year.
Seton Hall Softball – 2005 BIG EAST Championship Two seasons of conference dominance culminated with a second-straight BIG EAST title for the Seton Hall softball team in 2005. After concluding the regular season with a school record 15-3 mark in BIG EAST play the Pirates earned the No. 2 seed for the conference tournament in South
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| | 2005 Seton Hall Women's Softball Team |
Bend, Ind. Senior Megan Meyer, who was wrapping up a Hall of Fame career at Seton Hall, fanned 15 batters in the Pirates’ 3-2 victory over Syracuse in the quarterfinals, setting up a showdown with top seeded Notre Dame in the BIG EAST semifinals. Seton Hall topped Notre Dame, 2-1, to advance to its second-straight BIG EAST Championship game and then endured an 11-inning battle with the Fighting Irish en route to another 2-1 win over the conference’s top seed on its home field. Meyer threw all 11 innings to pick up the win in the BIG EAST Championship game and was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player for a second-straight year. Meyer’s postseason accolade was the latest conference award in the most celebrated season in program history. Senior Laura Taylor was named the BIG EAST Player of the Year after slamming 13 home runs with 42 RBI, and she along with Meyer were named First-Team All-BIG EAST while Caitlin White was a Second-Team All-BIG EAST selection and D’arcy Djakolovic was named Third-Team All-BIG EAST. Meyer went on to be named a Third-Team All-American for a second straight season and she along with White received First-Team Academic All-America honors, with Meyer being named the CoSIDA Division I Softball Academic All-American of the Year. The Pirates posted a 1-2 record in the NCAA Regional at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Mich., defeating the University of North Carolina, 1-0, in the opening round of the tournament.
| CONTINUING TRADITION: SETON HALL AND THE BIG EAST |
| 1979: Seton Hall Joins the BIG EAST
Monday, June 24 |
| | SHU Coaches Discuss the BIG EAST
Tuesday, June 25 |
| | Top-10 Individual Performances
Wednesday, June 26 |
