This site is about the sports doings of the high schools in Venango County, Pa. Contact: pennyweichel@gmail.com
MELAT INDUCTED INTO VIRGINIA TECH HALL OF FAME
She's part of ' The Streak' at Cranberry
Carrie (Mason) Melat, third from left, current Cranberry girls basketball coach and past star there,
was inducted into the Virginia Tech Hall of Fame in 2023.
Melat is one of the Hokies' all-time greats in women's basketball, scoring 1,369 points in 123 games, including a school record 121 starts from 2003-06.
She's among VPI's leaders in assists, steals and three-pointers with 200 (former record-holder), and helped the Hokies to four appearances in the NCAA tourney.
Melat and six other new inductees were honored the weekend of Oct. 8 when Virginia Tech hosted Purdue in football.
The 5-7 Melat is Cranberry's second all-time leading scorer behind Susan Blauser.
...and she's one of three Division I stars to hail from Venangoland
Susan Blauser (left) and Hillary Hager -- along with Mason -- starred in women's basketball around the turn of the century. None of them were strangers to the NCAA playoffs.
Blauser, also from Cranberry, played two years at Rutgers before transferring to Illinois where she really came into her own. Hager, from Franklin, was at Vanderbilt for four years.
Blauser was named to the All-Big East freshmen team before making first team All-Big Ten in 1999 and 2000.
Hager scored 840 points for the Commodores despite an abbreviated (35 points) sophomore campaign. She later earned her PhD from the school in cell and developmental biology.
