Eastern Connecticut State University

If not the most talented female athlete in the department’s intercollegiate history (which she well may have been), Sheena J. Carpenter was unquestionably the most versatile. Fittingly, Carpenter’s arrival at Eastern in the early 1980’s coincided with broadening athletic opportunities for women in the NCAA. The first known male or female four-sport letterwinner in program history, Carpenter was a four-year starter in volleyball and a two-year starter in softball who also played one season of basketball and participated in one season of track and field. The Stamford native lettered on Eastern’s first three NCAA volleyball tournament qualifiers, its first NCAA softball tournament participant and national championship team, and on the second women’s basketball team to earn an NCAA invitation. In softball, Carpenter was selected to the 1982 NCAA Division III All-America team on the basis of her performance in the three-game national tournament and was named to all-tournament teams five times in volleyball.