Cross Country/Track 3/30/2023 4:00:00 PM

MAAC Recognizes 50 Women Leaders During 50th Anniversary of Title IX

The Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC), along with its 11 member institutions, are recognizing 50 impactful women leaders during the 50th Anniversary of Title IX and Women's History month. The 50 honorees include student-athletes, teams, coaches and administrators throughout the Title IX era from all 11 current fulltime member schools. These dynamic pioneers contributed to their respective sport, athletic departments, and institutions while paving the way for women of the future to have inclusion and gender equity in collegiate athletics.

Canisius' five selected honorees include former women's basketball player Shauna (Geronzin) Green, former softball player Katie (Miranto) Burd, former head women's basketball coach Sister Maria Pares, former cross country/track runner Mary Beth Riley and former women's basketball player Jénel Stevens. All five honorees are members of the Canisius Sports Hall of Fame.

Shauna (Geronzin) Green – Women's Basketball, 1998-2002
Shauna (Geronzin) Green was a four-year letterwinner for the Canisius women's basketball team from 1998-02, where she was a four-time All-MAAC selection, earning All-MAAC First Team honors three times. The program's career leader in points scored with 2,012, she led the Golden Griffins in scoring and rebounding in all four of her seasons on Main Street. The 1999 MAAC Rookie of the Year, she graduated from Canisius averaging 18.8 points per game and she grabbed 910 career rebounds. Both of those accomplishments are the most for any Canisius player since the program moved to the Division I level. A 2012 inductee into the Canisius Sports Hall of Fame, Green is currently the head women's basketball coach at the University of Illinois. She has also had successful head coaching runs at Division III Loras College and the University of Dayton.

Katie (Miranto) Burd – Softball, 2005-08
The Canisius softball program is one of the most successful female athletic programs within the MAAC, and one of the most recognizable student-athletes to come from that program is Katie (Miranto) Burd. A four-year letterwinner for the Golden Griffins from 2005-08, she graduated from the College as the softball program's career leader in hits (227), runs scored (161) and total bases (343), while ranking eighth all-time in career batting average at .378. A three-time All-MAAC First Team selection, she was named the MAAC's Co-Player of the Year in 2008 and later went on to be honored as the 2008 MAAC Softball Championship MVP after the Griffs won the league title. That 2008 team set a school record with 39 wins, and the team posted an overall record of 116-77 to go with a 49-14 mark in MAAC play, with (Miranto) Burd in the lineup, resulting in three MAAC Tournament crowns. A three-time MAAC All-Academic Team honoree and a 2008 ESPN the Magazine/COSIDA Academic All-America selection, she closed her Canisius career by being just the second Griff to be named the MAAC Female Student-Athlete of the Year. She was inducted into the Canisius Sports Hall of Fame in 2018.

Sister Maria Pares – Women's Basketball Coach, 1981-86
Sister Maria Pares served as the head women's basketball coach at Canisius from 1981-86, where she complied a career record of 108-39, good for a 73.5-win percentage. In her first season leading the Griffs, the Blue and Gold won 22-straight games en route to a 26-5 overall record and a fourth-place finish at the 1982 AIAW Regional Championship. The next season, the Griffs won 15 consecutive games and advanced to the NCAA Division II quarterfinal round with a record of 28-5. Sister Maria's 1983-84 squad capped a tremendous three season run with a 23-8 overall record and a second-place finish in the Upstate New York Conference. Sister Maria went on to serve as the head women's basketball coach at Marquette before returning to Western New York, where she won Buffalo Catholic League titles in volleyball, softball, basketball and badminton at Sacred Heart Academy. For her efforts leading the Canisius women's basketball program, she holds the honor of being the first female head coach to be voted into the school's Sports Hall of Fame, and she was inducted into the Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame in 1996.

Mary Beth Riley – Cross Country/Track, 1987-91
Mary Beth Riley was honored as the first NCAA Woman of the Year in October of 1991 after she returned to the Golden Griffin cross country and track teams after successfully battling Hodgkin's disease. During the 1988 cross country season, the then-19-year-old Riley began feeling ill and eventually learned that she suffered from Hodgkin's disease, a form of lymphatic cancer. Even through nine weeks of chemotherapy, Riley stayed in school and competed in track. By early 1990, the cancer was in complete remission, and Riley went on to set a school track record at 800 meters during her senior season. Riley, who graduated with a 3.8 grade-point average, was also awarded with the Eastern College Athletic Conference's Award of Valor, which was presented in recognition of her successful fight against cancer. She was inducted into the Canisius Sports Hall of Fame in 2001.

Jénel Stevens – Women's Basketball, 2000-04
Jénel Stevens, one of the most decorated female student-athletes in Canisius history, earned four varsity letters as a member of the Canisius women's basketball program from 2000-04. A three-time All-MAAC selection and the second player in program history to be named the MAAC Player of the Year, Stevens graduated from Canisius ranked in the top-10 in 10 different statistical categories in the school's women's basketball record book. After the 2003-04 season where she averaged 16.6 points and 9.9 rebounds per game, Stevens was honored as the MAAC Player of the Year and the league's Co-Defensive Player of the Year, making her the first player in program history to be tabbed as the conferences' top defensive player. She graduated from the program ranked fourth in career scoring with 1,590 points and her 876 career rebounds ranks third-best all-time in the school's record book. The first two-time Canisius Female Athlete of the Year honoree, Stevens was an assistant coach on the Griffs' 2005-06 squad that won the MAAC Tournament title and became the first NCAA Division I women's basketball program in Western New York to advance to the NCAA Tournament. She was enshrined into the Canisius Sports Hall of Fame in 2014.

About the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference:
With 11 institutions strongly bound by the sound principles of quality and integrity in academics and excellence in athletics, the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) is in its 42nd year of competition during the 2022-23 academic year. Current conference members include: Canisius College, Fairfield University, Iona University, Manhattan College, Marist College, Mount St. Mary's University, Niagara University, Quinnipiac University, Rider University, Saint Peter's University and Siena College.

Stay up to date with the MAAC on social media by following @MAACSports on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram or visit MAACSports.com for all the latest MAAC news.

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