Top 10 Highlights - Number 4
WINCHESTER, Va. - For the next two weeks, the Shenandoah University Department of Intercollegiate Athletics will be looking back at its top 10 highlights of the 2008-09 school year.
For the complete list and overview of the project, please click here.
Today, we look at our Number 4 Highlight: Women's Softball Winning 30 Games for Second Year in a Row
Heading into the spring of 2008, the Shenandoah University softball team was picked to finish seventh of 10 teams in the USA South Conference pre-season poll.
It wasn't like the poll was disrespecting the Hornets - the team was coming off a sixth-place finish in the league and while SU had made a surprising run to the USA South Tournament final the year before, most observers didn't think the team had the depth to compete for the league title over the 18-game conference slate.
Those observers were wrong.
Coach Marlena Kotynski's team ran through the conference season with a 15-3 record to win the 2008 regular season title by one-half game over Methodist University. The team had a host of individual honors - junior Katie Haskins was named Pitcher of the Year and freshman Catherine Pruiett Rookie of the Year in addition to Kotynski taking home Coach of the Year honors.
Finally, junior Catherine Beuerle became the first softball player to earn All-America honors when she was named ESPN The Magazine first team Academic All-America.
These women all returned in 2009 and formed the base of another solid squad. Led by the pitching of Haskins and 2009 USA South Conference Pitcher of the Year Brooke Over, the Hornets won 30 games for the second consecutive year and again made an appearance in the USA South Conference Tournament championship game.
Even though the team missed out on a regular season title, finishing second to Christopher Newport, the Hornets achieved their first regional ranking when it grabbed the No. 8 spot in the South Region rankings in mid-April.
SU also handed NCAA Regional participant Coast Guard Academy its only losses in the first 25 games and saw Haskins and Beuerle both repeat their 2008 honors.
Haskins joined Beuerle on the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America first team, giving the squad two members on the team for the first time in school history, and Beuerle capped her career by being named Don Scalf Award winner by the USA South.
Beuerle also was awarded a post-graduate scholarship by the NCAA.
The last two years have shown the hard work that Kotynski and her team has placed into the program, and as a result the university has one of the strongest softball programs in the South Region.
