Bishop Fenwick athletes choose Bentley and UMass-Amherst - The Boston Globe (Boston, MA)

GLOBE NORTH 1 / SPORTS / Notebook

A pair of Bishop Fenwick student athletes recently firmed uptheir college commitments.

Dan Kennedy, a running back for the Crusaders football team, willhead to Bentley in the fall, while classmate Kara Charochak signed aletter of intent to play field hockey at the University ofMassachusetts at Amherst.

Kennedy, the Crusaders' 5-foot-11-inch captain, led a 5-6 Fenwickteam with nine touchdowns last fall, also earning all-CatholicCentral League honors.

Charochak, also a captain, scored 12 goals and doled out 11assists in the regular season while pushing the Crusaders to a 14-5-2 season that ended with a run to the Division 2 North semifinals,where they lost to Watertown in overtime.

Bentley, which went 5-6 last fall and recently named interim headcoach Thom Boerman the permanent head coach, could have as many aseight running backs returning this coming fall.

UMass field hockey is coming off its second straight Atlantic-10championship, with second-year coach Justine Sowery winning coach ofthe year honors after leading the team to a 17-5 season (6-0 in theA-10), capped by an NCAA tournament berth.

Two-time winner

After four years at No. 1 singles for Nichols College, Melrosenative Jessica Porter is as accomplished on the tennis court as shehas been away from it.

Porter was tapped for first team Commonwealth Coast Conferencesingles and doubles honors, and at the same time the sportsmanagement major maintained the 3.6 GPA required to be named to theschool's dean's list for the fall.

Porter, a senior captain for the women's tennis team, went 12-5at first singles for the Bison and 11-5 at first doubles withpartner Chelsey Miller.

The singles wins gave Porter 42 for her career, the most inNichols College history.

Julian Benbow can be reached at jbenbow@globe.comm