Torero Athletics: Celebration of Excellence Awards; Vittek Set for NCAA Singles Play
The annual USD Athletics Celebration of Excellence awards ceremony took place on Monday, May 15, on a Hornblower Cruise around the San Diego Bay with USD student-athletes, coaches, administrators and staff onboard.
The ceremony, hosted by men's tennis player Joshua Page and women's swimmer MK Clancy, recognized outstanding student-athletes, the Male and Female Torero athletes of the year and other special awards.
This year's USD Athletics honorees were: Top Torero Moment — USD football's NCAA FCS playoff win over Cal Poly; Male Torero of the Year — Jonah Hodges, football; Female Torero of the Year — Tie between All-Americans Lisa Kramer, volleyball, and Uche Anyawu, women's rowing; SAAC Leadership Award — Olivia Gonzalez, women's cross country; Highest GPA Award (Sophomore) — Creighton Morfitt, football; Highest GPA Award (Junior) — Sam Mattice, women's cross country; Highest GPA Award (Senior) — Julia Sherwood, women's soccer; Father Owen Mullen Service Award — Lauren Schad, volleyball; Spirit of the Torero Award — Men and Women's cross-country teams; Male Newcomer of the Year — Gui Osorio, men's tennis; Female Newcomer of the Year — Sara Silveyra, softball.
Men's Tennis: Vittek to Play in NCAA Singles Tournament
The USD men's tennis team's season concluded earlier this month in a first-round NCAA Tournament match-up against Wisconsin.
On Wednesday, Torero senior standout Filip Vittek will set his sights on winning one match at a time and he'd sure like to extend his final collegiate tournament beyond just a first-round appearance when he begins competing in the NCAA Men’s Tennis Singles Championship Tournament.
Vittek, ranked 93rd in the nation in singles, is slated to open tournament play at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex in Athens, Ga., in a noon Pacific Time match against Texas A&M’s Jordi Arconada. The winner of their match will face either Florian Lakat (Cal) or Ronnie Schneider (UNC) in the second round.
This is Vittek's third appearance in the NCAA Tournament, but first as a singles competitor. He has played NCAA doubles his junior and sophomore seasons. He has been a member of four consecutive USD West Coast Conference Tournament Team Championships and WCC regular-season team champion three times.
Baseball: Sweeps Pepperdine, but St. Mary’s Gets WCC Tournament Spot Via Tiebreaker
The Toreros baseball team came in this past weekend needing to win all three games of its regular-season series against West Coast Conference foe Pepperdine at Fowler Park to have any shot of qualifying for this coming weekend's four-team WCC Tournament bracket in Stockton.
USD 3-1, Check. USD 9-3, Check. USD 8-2, Check. Solid pitching from starter Paul Richan on Friday and relievers Jonathan Teaney, Louis Crow and the 12th and 13th saves of the season by closer Troy Conyers on Friday and Sunday, respectively. Offensive support came from the bats of Roman Garcia, Jeff Houghtby, Paul Kunst, and Kevin Collard, among others, over the three days.
Unfortunately, USD's 18-9 WCC record only tied them with St. Mary's in the WCC standings for the fourth and final slot with St. Mary's, which swept Santa Clara over the weekend. As a result of the Gaels' two-of-three series win earlier against USD, St. Mary's won the WCC head-to-head tiebreaker.
St. Mary's joins BYU, Gonzaga and Loyola Marymount in the May 25-27 tournament field at Stockton to determine the WCC's automatic berth in the 64-team NCAA Tournament bracket.
The only chance for USD (35-18-1) to get into the NCAA Tournament is to secure one of the 33 at-large berths available. The 64-team draw will be announced on Monday, May 29 at 9 a.m. Pacific time on ESPNU.
Softball: Toreros Go 0-2 in NISC Postseason Debut
The first-ever postseason appearance for the USD softball team was short-lived.
Utah State routed USD, 8-0, in five innings in the opening game of the new National Invitational Softball Championship tournament on May 16. USD was limited to three hits — a double by Lindsay Clare and singles by Olivia Sandusky and Frankie Perales — in the loss to Utah State.
A double-elimination format in the regional, hosted in Ogden, Utah by Weber State, gave USD one more chance on May 17 against Boise State, who’d lost to Weber State. Boise State topped the Toreros, 7-3, but USD did have a 2-1 lead in the third inning on Sandusky's two-run homer in the third inning. It was her team-high eighth home run of the season and upped her team-high RBI count to 36. Sara Silveyra had two of USD's five hits.
Torero senior pitcher Megan Sabbatini took both losses to finish her season at 12-15. She pitched 1.2 innings in the first game, allowing six runs, and then went four innings, allowing six hits and four runs against Boise State.
The Toreros, who finished third in the WCC standings, completed their season with a 22-24 overall record.
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