UMBC Sports Blog 2009-2010 Athletic Awards

Lets break down the 2009-2010 athletic season: one championship (Swimming and Diving), four second place finished (Women’s Lacrosse, Men’s Soccer, Men’s Tennis, and Women’s Swimming and Diving), and a bevy of all-conference players. It is really easy to say it was a down season for UMBC, but that is just because the marquee sports struggled. Men’s Lacrosse took a step back after being one of the most dominating teams in the conference for several years; men’s Basketball went from back-to-back finals appearances to just a 4-26 record; women’s Basketball took nationally ranked Virginia to the brink in the season opener but failed to move up from where they were last year despite so much returning talent; baseball had their second-straight nine win season; women’s soccer finished in last place again, and softball wasted a hot start to the season and missed the conference tournament. But there are plenty of other sports that had a lot of success. Men’s Soccer was picked to finished dead last this season, but proved to have one of the most dominating offenses in the nation, led by the N.C.A.A.’s two top scorers and finished in the America East Conference finals. Women’s lacrosse finally got into the AEC tournament, but upset the goliath University at Albany in the semi-finals and lost by just one to Boston University in the finals. Swimming and Diving? Well they just proved to be absolutely dominating once again. The men’ won their 13th straight league championship while the women finished right near the top again. Men’s tennis proved to be one of the most consistent teams at UMBC and made a trip back to the AEC finals, coming up just short of a championship, but showed significant improvement. Track and Field also had some absolutely dominating athletes across the board. Victor Gilreath and Keith Onto were untouchable in their events, while Sara Parkinson was an all-conference player in all three season. A lot of good things happened for UMBC this year, and they set the school up for a phenomenal year in 2010-2011. So without further adieu, here are the yearly UMBC Sports Blog Awards for the 2009-2010 athletic year:

Top Coach

Pete Caringi, Men’s Soccer

While Chad Cradock brought home UMBC’s only championship, it’s hard not to give the award to Caringi. His team was picked to finish in eighth place in an eight team conference with 14 freshmen and sophomores, an unproven goalie, and only one player returning with more than three goals in 2008. But right away, the Caringi-lead team showed that it really was a new season. The team started 9-0, were nationally ranked during the season, and got to the finals for the first time in nine years, and finished with 14 wins, the most since the 2000 season.

Male Freshman of the Year

Phil Saunders, Men’s Soccer

This ear the soccer team was about a very high scoring offense, but Phil Saunders was still phenomenal in goal. First, goalie very well may the toughest position on a soccer field. He not only has to stop a ball being hit at him at 70 m.p.h., but he also has to set up everybody’s position on the field. He’s the leader of the team, the quarterback. But Saunders excelled at the position. He shut out six teams and allowed an average of just one goal per game.

Female Freshman of the Year

Jamie Fahey, Women’s Lacrosse

The list of accomplishments and awards for Jamie Fahey this year is just remarkable. After her freshman season Fahey was honored with and All-Rookie selection, Rookie of the Year, Second team All-AEC, Mid-Atlantic Second Team honors by the Women’s Lacrosse Coaches’ Association, and All-Rookie team honors by womenslacrosse.com. While Fahey was a defender, her speed and ball handling ability made her a threat to score every time she touched the ball. She is certainly one of the cornerstones of the team that will contend for a championship next year.

Best Male Performance

Courtesy www.umbcxctf.wordpress.com

Keith Onto, Men’s Track and Field, 7,239 points in Decathlon at AEC Championships

Winning one event is a big feat, but winning six events in order to do that is just amazing. Keith Onto broke an AEC Championship record with 7,239 points in the heptathlon as he won the 400-meter dash, 110-meter hurdles, long jump, high jump, javelin, and Discus, while coming in second in the 100-meter dash and shot put, and third in the 1,500-meter run and pole vault. Onto finished with 577 points more than the second place finisher.

Best Female Performance

Carlee Cassidy, Women’s Basketball, Leads the team to a 23-points comeback over Boston University on her senior day

In her final game at RAC arena Carlee Cassidy scored 25 points with nine rebounds and three assists. But 16 of those points came in the second half during a 23-point comeback. UMBC fell into a big hole early to Boston University and trailed by 23 points early in the second half. But Carlee Cassidy got hot after that and led her team to a miraculous comeback, sending her out on top.

Best Moment

Courtesy www.umbcretrievers.com

Men’s Swimming and Diving wins 13th straight league title

After a 12-year period of dominance the men’s swimming and diving team was supposed to finally be overthrown as AEC Champions by a heavily favored Boston U team. Boston U returned every key contributor from the year before while UMBC lost some key swimmers. But as always, people stepped up and the reign of dominance was not ended after a dozen victories. The team came together, guys stepped up, others overachieved, and the team won their 13th straight league title and 7th straight AEC title.

Most Improved Male Athlete

Courtesy www.umbcxctf.wordpress.com

Camal Pugh, Men’s Track and Field

Good but never great- that was Camal Pugh’s reputation as an athlete on the track and field team for three years. But in his senior year he changed that. Pugh went from a guy who would contribute to his teams total every once in a while to one of the best runners on the team. During the indoor season he won two golds, three silvers, and a spot in the I.C.4.A. Championships. During the outdoor season, he remained the teams top hurdler every time out, and won a gold at the AEC Championship meet, and once again, qualified for the I.C.4.A. Championships.

Most Improved Female Athlete

Erika Braerman, Women’s Lacrosse

Last season Erika Braerman just had to pass the ball inside to the teams big guns. But this year, she was one of them. As a freshman Braerman scored just nine goals and had 11 assists but this year she led the team with 54 points off a team high 22 assists, and 32 goals, which ranked second on the team. Braerman learned her new role fast, and really excelled at it, making her another cornerstone of the women’s lacrosse team’s future success.

Unsung Male Hero

Mike Camardo, Men’s Lacrosse

It is really stunning to see that with everything Mike Camardo has done in his career, he has only been named to the AEC Second-team just two times in his career. He’s never been a first-team player or All-American. But when watching Mike Camardo you can tell he was always the best player on the field for both sides. His job was not to score, or set up the offense. It was to shut down the opposing offense and he did just that. In 13 games Camardo caused 36 turnovers (2.76 per game) and scooped up 54 ground balls (4.15 per game). As a long stick midfielder he was never the spotlight of the team, but he was usually up against the teams top offensive player, and usually won the battle.

Unsung Female Athlete

Kira Giles, Volleyball

When you’re a setter in Volleyball it is only natural for you to get overlooked. The credit always went to Ashley Oscars, Alyssa Lang, and Naomi Bush for smacking the ball down for kills, and for good reason. But Kira Giles was iatrical in all of that happening. As the setter she not only had to lob the ball up for them to hit, but she had to do it in the right place, which she did 633 times during the season. But she also contributed everywhere else on the floor, tying for second with 16 service aces, finished fourth with 171 digs, and fifth with 28 blocks.

Fan’s Choice Male Athlete of the Year

Andrew Bulls, Men’s soccer

Andrew Bulls ran away with the fan vote, more than doubling the second place finisher. With 15 goals and 11 assists, Bulls finished the regular season as the nations leading scorer and earned the AEC Striker of the Year award. It didn’t take long to see that Bulls was headed for a spectacular season. He scored four goals and had five assists after the first week of games and was named Player of the Week by collegesoccernews.com. He started the season with a score in 11 straight games, tying Giuliano Celenza’s streak set in 2000. He became the faster Retriever to score eight goals (six games) in their D-I history and finished second in the nation with 26 points, only behind his teammate Levi Houapeu.

Fan’s Choice Female Athlete of the Year

Fan’s just could not pick between the two seniors as they both finished with the same number of votes.

Carlee Cassidy, Women’s Basketball

Carlee Cassidy is certainly one of UMBC’s greatest scorers and continued to prove it as a senior with 13.3 points, 4.7 rebounds, 2.1 assists, 2.3 three-pointers, and a 36.1 FG% and 32.0 3-pt%.

Amanda Fefel, Softball

Fefel is also arguably one of the best players in the softball team’s history. This year she not only dominated at the plate, totaling 53 hits, 13 home runs, 35 RBIs, 101 total bases, a .631 slugging percentage, and 40% on-base percentage. She also dominated on the mound with a team-best 2.64 ERA and four saves. She eventually moved back into the starting rotation as the season wore on. This year she also became UMBC’s all-time leader in home runs as she hit her 41st career home run. She finished the season with her fourth-straight first-team All-AEC selection, and also earned an ECAC all-star selection.

Male Athlete of the Year

Levi Houapeu, Men’s Soccer

When you’re the nation’s leading scorer and ECAC Offensive Player of the Year it’s hard not to be the UMBC Sports Blog Player of the Year. The fact is, Levi Houapeu was just absolutely dominate this year and was a huge reason the team was really successful. His speed and scoring ability opened up the other offensive players, but was also just too good for his opponents to stop. He finished the season with 28 points off 15 goals and 13 assists. He recorded two hat tricks this season, becoming the first to do so since Derek McElligott in 2001. After being injured as a sophomore, he came back and helped lead the team to their first AEC finals since 2000, and put them back on the map for next year.

Female Athlete of the Year

Courtesy www.umbcxctf.wordpress.com

Sara Parkinson, Women’s Cross Country and Track and Field

While she did not win the award for any particular season, it is hard to break her success down into just on because, well, she competed in three seasons. Parkinson was always her team’s top performer and that showed with her awards at the end of those seasons. She received all-conference three times in the 2009-2010 athletic year, which to say the least, is impressive. Being named All-AEC for one sport is a big accomplishment, but to carry that level of success into three seasons is very tough to do.