Sarah Rozell, Hannah Heacox, and Motasem Al-Houni have been named the Gustavus April Athletes of the Month.
St. Peter, Minn. – Pitchers Sarah Rozell (Sr., Lakeville, Minn.) and Hannah Heacox (Sr., Stillwater, Minn.) were named the Gustavus Female Co-Athletes-of-the-Month, while men’s tennis player Motasem Al-Houni (Sr., Tripoli, Libya) was named the Gustavus Male Athlete-of-the Month for April.
SARAH ROZELL
Softball
Hometown: Lakeville, Minnesota
HANNAH HEACOX
Softball
Hometown: Sherburn, Minnesota
Over the course of the Gustavus softball team’s gauntlet April schedule that included 26 games (22 of which against conference opponents), the Gusties put together a 20-6 record and earned the No. 3 seed in the MIAC Playoffs. Much of the team’s success through April stemmed from its prowess on the rubber and the one-two pitching punch of Sarah Rozell and Hannah Heacox. Logging a combined 164.1 innings, the pair went a collective 19-4 with an earned run average of just 1.27. Rozell went 9-1 with an ERA of 1.22 (74 inn.), while Heacox went 10-3 with an ERA of 1.31 (90.1 inn.). Sarah began the month with a 4.57 ERA and saw that drop to 2.71 by the end of April. She picked up wins in her last four starts and allowed just two earned runs within that four-game time-span. Hannah posted seven complete-game shutouts and struck out double-digit batters in five games en route to finishing the month with 128 Ks.
MOTASEM AL-HOUNI
Tennis
Hometown: Tripoli, Libya
In a month that saw the Gustavus men’s tennis team face three opponents ranked inside the top 15 and complete its MIAC schedule with an unbeaten mark of 9-0 on its way to a 27th straight MIAC Championship, senior Motasem Al-Houni settled into his role as Head Coach Tommy Valentini’s No. 2 singles and proved himself, alongside Andres Saenz, to be one of the top doubles tandems in the country. In April, Gustavus went 7-4 with three of its losses coming at the hands of No. 1 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (9-0), No. 4 Pomona-Pitzer (5-4), and No. 13 Chicago (5-4). Al-Houni put together a 7-2 record in singles – one match went unfinished – and capped the month with seven straight victories. The Libyan-Mexican pari went 8-1 with their lone loss coming to the top-ranked doubles team in the West Region, Joe Dorn and Warren Wood, of Claremont-Mudd-Scripps. Al-Houni enters the NCAA Tournament 21-11 in singles and 25-7 with Saenz in doubles.