Former Coyote is Coach of the Year
Courtesy of Fairmont State University
Former Madera Coyotes standout Courtney Matarazzi was named the Mountain East Conference’s Coach of the Year. She picked up her first award while leading Fairmont State to the top seed in the MEC volleyball tournament.
BRIDGEPORT, W.Va. — The Mountain East Conference announced its top honors and all-conference teams for the Spring 2021 season as Fairmont State’s Julia DiPaola and West Virginia State’s Jenna Dufresne earned Player of the Year accolades.
Fairmont State head coach and former Madera Coyote standout Courtney (Taubert) Materazzi was recognized as the Coach of the Year on March 24.
Materazzi is the MEC Coach of the Year for the first time in her career. She led Fairmont State to a 10-3 record and a share of the North Division title this spring.
During the season, Fairmont State snapped Wheeling’s NCAA-record for consecutive conference wins at 219, which helped the Falcons earn the No. 1 seed in the North Division for the MEC Tournament.
Matarazzi guided Fairmont State to the MEC Tournament championship match for the fifth time during her tenure and finished runner-up in the tournament.
Guglielmana earns Cal Pac honors
After a perfect regular season and the longest winning streak in school history, the 15th-ranked University of California, Merced men’s volleyball team garnered a plethora of California Pacific Conference postseason awards, including five of the seven major honors.
Ryan Steele was named Cal Pac Setter of the Year, Zach Brill was titled Defensive Player of the Year, and freshman Jared Guglielmana (Madera South) was tabbed Newcomer of the Year. Also, head coach Ai Prachumsri was selected Coach of the Year. Aaron Samarin earned Assistant Coach of the Year honors.
Other standouts
Colorado Universty runner Eduardo Herrera (Madera South) won the Hayward Premiere 5,000 meters race on April 2 in Oregon. He finished with a time of 13:24.46, the second fastest in school history, besting his personal record by 33 seconds.
His time is an Olympic qualifying mark and is the fastest collegiate runner in the nation at 5,000 meters. His time is the third-fastest time in college since 2017.
Former Madera Coyote Camile Nunez of Vernon College is the NTJCAC Softball Co-Position Players of the Week after a stellar week at the plate helping the Chaps sweep Cisco College.
Nunez, a freshman utility player, hit .714 last week with two doubles, two triples, two home runs, two walks, seven RBIs and fiveruns scored.
After orginally getting its season canceled, the Fairleigh Dickinson Knights softball team began its season a couple of weeks ago. Happy to be playing again is former Liberty standout, Summer Mendoza, a senior on the team. In 14 games, she is batting .256 with 10 hits, second on the team, five runs scored, twodoubles and a triple.
Sofia Perez (Madera) has two home runs to go with two doubles and six RBIs for York College’s softball team. She has appeared in 19 games and has a .264 batting average.
Perez went 4-for-6 with a three-run home run and a double in a doubleheader split with Sterling on Thursday.
Johanna Lewis (Liberty) has started in all 22 games for the Vanguard Lions softball team. She carries a .358 batting average to go with a .436 on bas percentage. She is second on the team with 24 hits to go with 14 runs scored and three doubles. She also leads the team with seven stolen bases.
The Olivet Comets have played 12 softball games this season and Sarah Shevenell (Liberty) has appeared in all of them. She is batting .250 with three runs scored.
Olivet scored three runs in the bottom of the seventh inning in Friday’s victory over Kalamazoo. That gave Shevenell her first career college victory. She tossed all seven innings. Although she gave up nine runs, just five were earned.
Shevenell has also made 10 appearances in the circle with four starts. She has a 5.76 ERA, which leads the team. She is 1-3 with 19 strikeouts in 37.2 innings pitched, both team-leading totals.
Aaliyah Cuevas (Madera) is a running machine. She has appeared in 24 of the Fresno State softball team’s 29 games this season. She has eight runs scored to go with two stolen bases, all as the team’s leading pinch-runner.
Fresno Pacific first baseman Brian Hefner (Madera) is hitting .200 in his sophomore season. He has six hits, but three are for extra bases with a double and two home runs. He has six RBIs with six runs scored.
