On college playing fields along the East Coast on Sunday, players honored the grieving women's lacrosse team from Seton Hill University that was reeling from a bus crash that killed their pregnant coach, her unborn child and the driver and injured players and other coaches.
Police are investigating why the bus veered off a Pennsylvania highway Saturday and crashed into a tree.
"It's numbing," said sophomore K.T. Dimmick of Rochester, N.Y. "There's really no words for it.''
US Lacrosse, the sport's national governing body, urged teams to hold a moment of silence for the team and the crash victims. Millsaps College in Jackson, Miss., announced that its team members would wear Seton Hill's colors in a game it was hosting against Huntingdon College of Montgomery, Ala.
Head coach Kristina Quigley, 30, of Greensburg, Pa., died of her injuries at a hospital, authorities said. Quigley was about six months pregnant, and her unborn son didn't survive. The bus driver, Anthony Guaetta, 61, of Johnstown, Pa., died at the scene.
Seton Hill's players and coaches were among 23 people aboard the bus. The team was headed to a Saturday afternoon game at Millersville University, about 50 miles from the crash site in central Pennsylvania.
Quigley, a Baltimore native, was in her second season as head coach of the NCAA Division II team after leading the Griffins to 11 wins in her first season. She was married and had a young son, Gavin, the school said.
She played attack on the Duquesne University lacrosse team as a student, then worked as an assistant coach at her alma mater for a year. She came to Seton Hill from Erskine College in Due West, S.C., where she started the school's NCAA Division II program and spent three years as head coach.
Duquesne women's lacrosse coach Mike Scerbo remembered Quigley as warm and outgoing, saying she immediately impressed him when he hired her to be an assistant during the 2008 season.
"She was a very happy person, very passionate about life, about her players, about her job and most importantly about her family," Scerbo said.
At a memorial at the school Sunday evening, Seton Hill men's basketball coach Tony Morocco said Quigley made an impact in the two years she was at the school. "She was really a sincere person who always used coaching to touch kids," Morocco said. "What she gave those girls is going to outlast this."
Both Saturday's game and a Sunday home game were canceled. Seton Hill is a Catholic liberal arts school of about 2,500 students in Greensburg, near Pittsburgh.
Seton Hall University, a Catholic college in New Jersey with a similar name, posted a notice online that some media had incorrectly identified
Seton Hall students as being involved in the bus accident.
The bus operator, Mlaker Charter & Tours, of Davidsville, Pa., is up to date on its inspections, said Jennifer Kocher, a spokeswoman for the state Public Utility Commission, which regulates bus companies.
Contributing: William M. Welch and the Associated Press
