VALDOSTA, Ga. – Despite the adversities of the COVID-19 Pandemic, the Valdosta State Blazers complete another strong season in 2020-21 culminating in a berth in the NCAA Division II Softball College World Series last month.
 
The 2020-21 season saw a welcome return to athletics after the 2020 spring seasons were cancelled in March.  This past fall, the men's golf and cross country competed in abbreviated schedules, while traditional fall sports of volleyball and soccer were moved to the spring.  Football was the only sport which didn't compete at all this season for the Blazers, but it did have a fall practice season with a scrimmage and a traditional spring practice season.  The football team also had a two-day practice with Grand Valley State University in March. 
 
The men's golf team competed in two tournaments in the fall and then had its traditional spring season.  The Blazers qualified for the NCAA South/Southeast Super Regional for the second-straight time, while senior Wesley Hanson was named Gulf South Conference Men's Golf Spring Scholar-Athlete for the second-straight season.  Hanson and sophomore Chase Weathers earned All-GSC Second Team honors and were both named to the GSC All-Academic Team.
 
The Blazer cross country teams were the first two compete following the shutdown last spring and the teams performed admirably in four tournaments in the fall.  The men's team won the Julius Johnson Memorial Invitational hosted by Division I Mercer University right out of the gates to begin the season, marking the program's first team victory since 2014.  VSU also had the first three finishers, marking the first time that has happened since the 1970s.  Junior Brishen House began his outstanding season winning the individual title with a time of 26:42.2 as he helped lead the Blazers to a sixth-place finish at the conference tournament.  House finished 16^th earning second team all-conference honors with a time of 25:10.54. The team averaged 26:25 for the fastest average since 1982. 
 
House, a Valdosta native, was named GSC Top Ten in the spring, marking the second-straight season of a Blazer men's student-athlete earning the prestigious honor.  Last season, former men's basketball standout Clay Guillozet earned GSC Top Ten honors and won the Commissioner's Trophy.  
 
The women's cross country team also had great success this season, finishing third at the Julius Johnson Memorial Invitational, while it also was sixth at the conference meet.  Senior Angie Cipriani finished eighth with a new P.R. time of 18:09.09, setting the new school-record for a 5K beating former Blazer Tyra Holloway's record in 2017 by eight seconds.  Cipriani earned first team all-conference honors for her efforts.  Junior Samantha Murray earned second team all-conference honors finishing 16^thwith a new P.R. time of 18:53.53.
 
Heading into the winter, both basketball teams returned to the court in December, 2020, and both had outstanding seasons with the women's team winning the East Division of the GSC and reached the second round of the NCAA postseason with a final record of 18-4 and 16-2 in GSC play.  The Lady Blazers had a pair of seven-game winning streaks during the season and finished 13^th in the final WBCA Top 25.
 
Transfer Kwajelin Farrar earned WBCA First Team All-America honors for the Lady Blazers, marking the first VSU women's basketball player to earn first team WBCA All-America accolades since 1995. VSU second year head coach Deandra Schirmer was named GSC Coach of the Year, while Farrar was named GSC Player of the Year.  Senior Kayla Bonilla earned first team all-conference honors and sophomore Jirah Ards earned second team accolades.   Academically, the Lady Blazers had ten student-athletes named to the GSC Academic Honor Roll.
 
The Blazer men's basketball team won its first Gulf South Conference title in school history with a thrilling 75-70 victory over rival Alabama Huntsville.  VSU senior Burke Putnam was named Most Outstanding Player for the conference tournament, while senior Imoras Agee and junior Jacolbey Owens were named to the all-tournament team.  VSU was awarded hosting duties for the 2021 NCAA South Regional for the second time in program history.  The Blazers qualified for the regional for the fifth-straight season under head coach Mike Helfer, finishing the season with a 17-5 record overall and a 14-4 mark in the GSC.  VSU finished 24^th nationally in the final D2 SIDA Top 25.
 
Helfer is 320-146 (.687) in 16 seasons at VSU and 506-229 (.688) in 24 seasons of coaching overall.  He won his 500^th career game on Feb. 12, 2021, with a 91-87 victory over Auburn Montgomery at The Complex.
 
Agee and Putnam were named first team all-conference this season, while junior Cam Hamilton earned second team all-league honors.  Agee earned NABC First Team All-District this season.  Hamilton, Agee and redshirt freshman Jeremy Golson earned GSC Academic Honor Roll accolades this season.
 
Playing an abbreviated season in the spring, the VSU women's soccer team went 3-2-2 overall and 3-0-2 in GSC play under fourth year head coach Stephen Andrew.  He is 35-22-5 at VSU and 175-77-14 overall in 14 years as a head coach.  The Blazers earned a berth in the GSC Spring Championship Series, falling 2-1 to West Alabama to conclude the season.
 
The team was led by sophomore newcomer Rachel Howard to finished the season with five goals and three assists for 13 points, while junior Kyleigh Reedy finished second on the team in scoring with seven points on two goals and three assists.  Reedy was name to the GSC Spring All-Academic Team, while she, along with senior Paige Taylor and junior Lauren Hicks earned Academic All-District honors as selected by CoSIDA.  A total of 22 Blazer soccer players earned GSC Academic Honor Roll in the spring.
 
The Blazers had wins at West Georgia (4-3, OT), at Auburn Montgomery (4-3, 2OT), and Shorter (2-1, 2OT) this season.  A total of five of the seven games went into extra-time this season as VSU went 3-0-2 in the extra-time games.  
 
VSU's Cheerleading and Red Hots also had outstanding seasons in 2020-21.  Both had great finishes at the national championships where the Red Hots were national runner-up at the 2021 NDA Collegiate Championships in the Hip-Hop Division and finished third in the Jazz Division.  The Cheerleaders finished second at the national championship in the Intermediate All-Girl Open Final in April.
 
Blazer volleyball also had an abbreviated season with ten matches this season, including a pair of home matches versus Montevallo and Auburn Montgomery on the same day in March.  VSU featured two courts playing simultaneously that day.  
 
VSU went 1-1 in the GSC Spring Championship Series with a 3-1 victory over Union and a 3-0 loss at Auburn Montgomery. Blazer junior Jessie Mooney led the team in kills this season with 120 and scored a team-high 136.5 points in ten starts under third-year head coach Kaleigh Zoucha.  A total of eleven Blazers earned GSC Academic Honor Roll in the spring.
 
The Blazer men's tennis team had another outstanding spring as it ran the table in the GSC during the regular season and claimed a league-best 14^th GSC title in 2021 with a thrilling 4-2 victory over West Florida.  The Blazers won their third-straight title and fourth championship in the past six tournaments.  
 
VSU seniors Yohan Nguyen and Florian Simbozel were named First Team All-GSC, while freshman Christian Wedel also earned first team all-league accolades.  Head coach John Hansen was named GSC Coach of the Year for the 13^th time as he guided the Blazers to a 15-2 record overall and a 9-0 mark in GSC play.  VSU earned the GSC's automatic bid to the NCAA South Regional this season.   

Nguyen and Simbozel were named ITA All-America for the second-straight season, while Hansen earned ITA South Region Coach of the Year honors.  Seven Blazers were named to the GSC Academic Honor Roll, while senior Robert Cizek earned GSC All-Academic honors for the first time.
 
For the women's tennis program, the Blazers went 6-4 in GSC play this season and were led by senior Estee' Widdershoven who earned GSC All-Academic honors for the second time, while she also earned First Team All-GSC honors for the third time.  Like the men's team, seven Blazers were named to the GSC Academic Honor Roll this spring.
 
Widdershoven finished the season with an 8-5 record in singles play and a 7-3 mark in the GSC, while she was paired with both Eva Rivoal and Rachelle Starreveld in doubles, going a combined 7-7 and 5-5 in league play.  
 
The Blazer baseball team finished the 2021 season with a 25-16 record overall and a 22-13 mark in the GSC.  VSU earned a berth in its 21^st GSC postseason tournament and improved to 37-37 all-time in the tournament.  The 37 wins are third-most among active GSC schools and fourth-most all-time in GSC history.
 
Head coach Greg Gwilliams' squad was led by senior Nick Lewis who earned multiple All-America honors this season as he became the fourth Blazer to be named to the D2 Conference Commissioners Association (D2CCA) First Team All-America selection in program history and earned National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) Second Team All-America honors.  Along with Lewis, seniors David Maberry and Tristan Cone each earned all-region honors and the trio also earned all-conference accolades with Lewis as a first team selection, while Cone and Maberry were second team honorees.  A total of 12 Blazers were named to the GSC Academic Honor Roll.
 
VSU won 10 of its final 12 games in the regular season to earn the No. 4-seed in the Gulf South Conference Championship at beautiful Choccolocco Park in Oxford, Ala.  Gwilliams improved to 409-267-1 at VSU in 14 seasons, while he is 1086-524-2 all-time in 31 seasons of coaching.
 
Having one of its most prolific seasons offensively, the VSU softball team finished the season with a 38-11 record overall and a berth in the program's fifth College World Series and finished sixth nationally in the final Nation Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) Top 25.  
 
VSU won the 2021 NCAA South Regional in thrilling fashion, defeating rival West Florida twice on the final day to claim the region championship.  The Blazers tied for the Gulf South Conference regular season title with a 25-5 record and were ranked as high as No. 2 in the NFCA Top 25 during the season.  
 
Head coach Thomas Macera who earned Gulf South Conference Coach of the Year honors for the fourth time, finished the season with a 699-202-2 record at VSU in 16 seasons, while he is 905-276-2 all-time in coaching.  He has won three national championships in his coaching career at three different schools, including the 2012 national championship for the Blazers and has two national runner-up finishes in 2010 and 2014 with the Blazers.  
 
VSU junior Nicole Pennington led the nation in home runs with 24 this season, while the team hit a staggering 109 home runs for the season to lead the nation.  The 109 home runs hit by VSU this season marked the third-most home runs in the history of NCAA Division II.  Humboldt State hit 114 in 2013 in 67 games, while Metro State (Colo.) hit 112 in 2010 in 59 games.  The crazy part of the 109 home runs hit by the Blazers this season was it was done in just 49 games.  VSU averaged 2.22 home runs per game to lead the nation and also a new NCAA Division II national record as Colorado Mesa had the previous mark of 1.93 home runs per game set in 2006 in 43 games with 83 home runs.
 
Pennington was named GSC Player of the Year, D2CCA South Region Player of the Year, South Region Tournament Most Outstanding Player and earned both D2CCA and NFCA First Team All-America honors.  She also was a Top 15 finalist for the 2021 Schutt Sports/NFCA Player of the Year.  Sophomore Samantha Richards had an outstanding season in the circle earning GSC Pitcher of the Year honors and was a D2CCA Second Team All-America honoree.   Senior Kiley Robb earned NFCA Third Team All-America honors as did freshman Morgan Hill, while Robb earned Second Team D2CCA All-America honors and M. Hill was a D2CCA Honorable Mention selection.   
 
Senior Logan Hill and freshman Aniston Gano each earned all-region honors this season, while L. Hill earned GSC All-Academic honors for the third time.  Robb was named to the GSC All-Academic Team for the second time and M. Hill made her first appearance on the team as VSU led the way with three selections.  Overall, VSU had 14 players earn GSC Academic Honor Roll.  
 
 
Blazers Bits for 2020-21