DePaul University Athletics
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Photo by: DePaul Athletics
Photo by: DePaul Athletics
Photo by: DePaul Athletics
Photo by: DePaul Athletics
Photo by: DePaul Athletics
Photo by: DePaul Athletics
Photo by: DePaul Athletics
Photo by: DePaul Athletics
Photo by: DePaul Athletics
Photo by: DePaul Athletics
Photo by: DePaul Athletics
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DePaul Athletics Celebrates a Season of Comebacks
6/7/2019 9:30:00 PM | ATHLETICS
Blue Demons surpass expectations throughout the 2018-19 campaign
CHICAGO – No one will forget that fateful night in March when an underdog DePaul women's basketball team absolutely refused to give in and rallied in the final moments for an inspiring victory and the BIG EAST Tournament championship.
One month later on a warm and sunny South Carolina afternoon, another Blue Demons program overcame a significant deficit to claim the BIG EAST Women's Tennis Championship.
An even more daunting challenge confronted DePaul's softball team three weeks later when the Blue Demons were down 9-3 to Villanova in the bottom of the sixth inning.
Brianna Viles' one-out single on a cold and rainy Saturday afternoon in May ignited one of the most magical moments in the history of DePaul softball. The Blue Demons erupted for eight runs---seven after two outs---in an amazing 11-10 triumph for the BIG EAST title.
This was indeed a season of comebacks that student-athletes, coaches, staff members and Blue Demon fans celebrated Friday night at the DePaul Athletics Awards Banquet in the Student Center. It was also a season where DePaul teams overachieved beyond the preseason expectations of BIG EAST coaches.
BIG EAST coaches picked the men's basketball team to finish 10th and the Blue Demons finished eighth. Men's soccer was 10th in the preseason coaches poll and came in seventh. Women's soccer wound up fourth in the regular season after being tabbed for fifth.
Women's tennis was the second seed in the conference tournament and wound up winning the title. The conference champion softball team was picked to finish fourth by BIG EAST coaches. Men's golf was seeded No. 6 in the BIG EAST Championship and ascended to a runner-up finish.
Still fresh in the mind's eye during the awards banquet was Chanté Stonewall taking Marquette's best defender off the bounce, twisting her body in midair after getting fouled and cashing in on a bank shot with five seconds left as partisans in Wintrust Arena went wild. The accompanying free throw gave DePaul a 74-73 lead.
It was far from over. Marquette placed the game's fate in the capable hands of BIG EAST Player of the Year Natisha Hiedeman who raced upcourt only to have a Stonewall of a defense deny her a credible buzzer-beating attempt. Stonewall was the unanimous choice for Most Outstanding Player while teammates Martè Grays and Kelly Campbell joined her on the all-tournament team.
In the beginning, the script was flipped for women's tennis as a fast start secured three of the four points needed to begin dancing on the Cayce (S.C.) Tennis & Fitness Center court. Going after its 19th win in a row, No. 1 seed Xavier drew even at 3-3.
Talk about a little drama, Alina Kuzmenkova fell behind 3-0 in the decisive singles match. But the resolute sophomore kept her poise and fought back for a 6-3 victory to secure the program's fourth automatic bid to the NCAA Championships in the last six years. It was also the fourth league title in that same span for coach Mark Ardizzone who won the BIG EAST Coaching Staff of the Year award along with assistant coach Yuliya Shupenia.
Keisha Clousing and Aspasia Avgeri were voted All-BIG EAST First Team by the league's coaches while tournament Most Outstanding Player Marija Jovicic and the clutch Kuzmenkova were selected All-BIG EAST Second Team.
The Ballpark at Rosemont was the scene of the improbable softball comeback televised nationally by FS1. Erin Andris drove in the first run with a one-out double. Then came the second out, dimming the likelihood of any late-game magic.
Maranda Gutierrez reached on a hit-batsman. Jessica Cothern ripped an RBI double, making her 4-for-4 on the day with three RBIs and an earlier home run.
Then, with one swing, senior Morgan Greenwood blasted a three-run homer and suddenly, a deliriously happy Blue Demon team had pulled within a single run.
Kate Polucha walked and advanced to second on a Villanova error. Freshman Gabby O'Riley delivered a clutch single to left that scored Polucha. Viles, who had singled to start the rally way-back when, found the gap for a two-run double in her second at-bat of the inning. Right before our eyes, DePaul led 11-9.
Villanova's lone run in the top of the seventh wasn't enough to deny first-year coach Tracy Adix-Zins and her never-say-die players a three-peat BIG EAST title and automatic berth into the NCAA regionals.
Winning pitcher Natalie Halvorson was named Most Outstanding Player and was joined on the all-tournament team by Cothern, Greenwood and Polucha. Gutierrez was chosen BIG EAST Defensive Player of the Year and was joined on the All-BIG EAST First Team by Cothern. Polucha and O'Riley were named to the second team.
This was also the coming-out season for women's track and field as coach Dave Dopek's team set a program record by finishing second at both the BIG EAST Indoor Championships and the Outdoor Championships.
Senior Jade Nolan dominated the long jump and triple jump at both the indoor and outdoor meets, earning the Women's Outstanding Field Performer at both championships. Sophomore sprinter Brendan van Voorhis was honored as the Men's Outstanding Track Performer after winning gold medals in the 200-meter dash and a pair of relays while finishing second in the 400 meters to teammate Henry Larkin. Freshman Larkin won every race he entered and tied Dopek's iconic school record in the 400 that was set in 1995.
The combined men's and women's track teams qualified six student-athletes for the NCAA West Outdoor Track Preliminaries.
Men's golf under the direction of coach Marty Schiene and led by record-setting Charlie Spencer-White finished second at the BIG EAST Championship. Spencer-White's individual BIG EAST runner-up finish is the highest for any Blue Demon golfer in school history, and his teammates matched the program-best second place that was achieved by the 2015 team.
Coach Dave Leitao, seniors Eli Cain and All-BIG EAST Second Team selection Max Strus along with BIG EAST Most Improved Player Paul Reed sparked men's basketball to a winning season and a runner-up finish in the Roman College Basketball Invitational.
The strong postseason performance set the Blue Demons on a path to return this storied program to its glory years as Strus also garnered NABC All-District honors. The nation's No. 17-ranked recruiting class is headed to Lincoln Park for next season featuring consensus top 50 national recruit 6-foot, 7-inch Romeo Weems, top 100 national recruit Markese Jacobs from the Public League's Uplift High School and guard Oscar Lopez.
They will be joined by former California standout point guard Charlie Moore who transferred in after playing at Kansas last season. Moore was the 2016 Illinois Mr. Basketball and Sun-Times Player of the Year while starring at Morgan Park. The Blue Demons will also welcome transfers Darious Hall (Arkansas) and 6-9 Carte'Are Gordon (Saint Louis). Hall was a national top 50 recruit coming out of high school and ESPN ranked Gordon No. 75.
Women's soccer qualified for its seventh consecutive BIG EAST Championship led by All-East Region and All-BIG EAST first-teamer Franny Cerny and All-BIG EAST Second Team selection Adrian Walker. Mollie Erikkson and Ellie Mink were named to the BIG EAST All-Freshman Team.
Vito Tonejc had a sparkling debut to his collegiate tennis career and was voted by the league's coaches as the BIG EAST Freshman of the Year. Ascending to the No. 1 singles position, Tonejc was also voted onto the All-BIG EAST Team as the Blue Demons advanced to the BIG EAST semifinals for the fourth consecutive year.
Keisha Clousing and Aspasia Avgeri headed up the All-BIG EAST First Team in women's tennis while teammates Marija Jovicic and championship heroine Kuzmenkova were named All-BIG EAST Second Team. Jovicic was also chosen the BIG EAST Championship Most Outstanding Player. Coach Mark Ardizzone and assistant coach Yuliya Shupenia were honored as the BIG EAST Coaching Staff of the Year.
"The student-athletes who choose DePaul have very broad shoulders," said DePaul Athletics Director Jean Lenti Ponsetto.  "Our coaches do an amazing job recruiting student-athletes who have extraordinary capacity to compete at a high level academically in the classroom and athletically in the Big East Conference. And if that weren't enough, they share their very generous hearts in our community and throughout Chicagoland every day in very profound ways.
"They have unbelievable determination and grit which generates the will to achieve and be successful. It's apparent when you see where opposing coaches picked us to finish and you see our student-athletes and coaches develop an edge to really excel and surpass all expectations.
"Our teams maximize their potential and have the intellect, skill and focus to achieve in the most critical of times. That is one of the strengths of our athletics program that sparked this year of comebacks and excellence."
In other highlights, Grays earned WBCA honorable mention All-America honors along with All-BIG EAST First Team. Stonewall was voted onto the All-BIG EAST Second Team and Lexi Held was selected to the BIG EAST All-Freshman Team. Ashton Millender, who was invited to the WNBA Chicago Sky tryout camp, won the BIG EAST Sportsmanship Award.
Grays was a repeat selection and Strus a first-time honoree on the I-AAA ADA national Scholar-
Athlete Team as selected by the nation's athletics directors. Clousing was the ITA Midwest Region winner of the Cissie Leary Sportsmanship Award.
Here is a rundown on 2018-19 DePaul awards winners:
Rev. John R. Cortelyou, C.M. Award
Kyle Decker - Men's Track and Field
Emily Eller - Â Women's Track and Field
Rev. Edward F. Riley, C.M. Memorial Award
Eli Cain - Men's Basketball
Kyle Decker - Men's Track and Field
Harry Hilling - Men's Soccer
Jean Nordberg Memorial Award
Franny Cerny - Women's Soccer
Morgan Greenwood - Softball
Caroline Kurdej - Women's Cross-Country
Ashton Millender – Women's Basketball
Michael Hie Memorial Award
Stephanie DiCaro, Admininstration
Michaelis Wilson, Softball
Paul Stromberg, Athletics Communications
Alana Dickens, Athletics Communications
Sports Performance Award
Laura Edwards, Women's Track and Field
Max Strus, Men's Basketball
Community Service Awards
Team Cup: Women's Basketball
Individual: Isaac Walker, Men's Track and Field
Most Outstanding Performer
Men's Soccer – Max de Bruijne               Â
Golf – Charlie Spencer-White
Women's Soccer – Franny Cerny
Volleyball – Emma Price                                              Â
Women's Basketball – Mart'e Grays
Men's Basketball – Max Strus
Men's Cross Country – Noah Deck
Women's Cross Country – Caroline Kurdej
Men's Indoor Track – Kyle Decker
Men's Outdoor Track – Brendan Van Voorhis                   Â
Women's Indoor Track – Kiersten Walker                                           Â
Women's Outdoor Track – Jade Nolan                                 Â
Women's Tennis – Keisha Clousing                                        Â
Men's Tennis - Vito Tonejc                       Â
Softball – Morgan Greenwood
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One month later on a warm and sunny South Carolina afternoon, another Blue Demons program overcame a significant deficit to claim the BIG EAST Women's Tennis Championship.
An even more daunting challenge confronted DePaul's softball team three weeks later when the Blue Demons were down 9-3 to Villanova in the bottom of the sixth inning.
Brianna Viles' one-out single on a cold and rainy Saturday afternoon in May ignited one of the most magical moments in the history of DePaul softball. The Blue Demons erupted for eight runs---seven after two outs---in an amazing 11-10 triumph for the BIG EAST title.
This was indeed a season of comebacks that student-athletes, coaches, staff members and Blue Demon fans celebrated Friday night at the DePaul Athletics Awards Banquet in the Student Center. It was also a season where DePaul teams overachieved beyond the preseason expectations of BIG EAST coaches.
BIG EAST coaches picked the men's basketball team to finish 10th and the Blue Demons finished eighth. Men's soccer was 10th in the preseason coaches poll and came in seventh. Women's soccer wound up fourth in the regular season after being tabbed for fifth.
Women's tennis was the second seed in the conference tournament and wound up winning the title. The conference champion softball team was picked to finish fourth by BIG EAST coaches. Men's golf was seeded No. 6 in the BIG EAST Championship and ascended to a runner-up finish.
Still fresh in the mind's eye during the awards banquet was Chanté Stonewall taking Marquette's best defender off the bounce, twisting her body in midair after getting fouled and cashing in on a bank shot with five seconds left as partisans in Wintrust Arena went wild. The accompanying free throw gave DePaul a 74-73 lead.
It was far from over. Marquette placed the game's fate in the capable hands of BIG EAST Player of the Year Natisha Hiedeman who raced upcourt only to have a Stonewall of a defense deny her a credible buzzer-beating attempt. Stonewall was the unanimous choice for Most Outstanding Player while teammates Martè Grays and Kelly Campbell joined her on the all-tournament team.
In the beginning, the script was flipped for women's tennis as a fast start secured three of the four points needed to begin dancing on the Cayce (S.C.) Tennis & Fitness Center court. Going after its 19th win in a row, No. 1 seed Xavier drew even at 3-3.
Talk about a little drama, Alina Kuzmenkova fell behind 3-0 in the decisive singles match. But the resolute sophomore kept her poise and fought back for a 6-3 victory to secure the program's fourth automatic bid to the NCAA Championships in the last six years. It was also the fourth league title in that same span for coach Mark Ardizzone who won the BIG EAST Coaching Staff of the Year award along with assistant coach Yuliya Shupenia.
Keisha Clousing and Aspasia Avgeri were voted All-BIG EAST First Team by the league's coaches while tournament Most Outstanding Player Marija Jovicic and the clutch Kuzmenkova were selected All-BIG EAST Second Team.
The Ballpark at Rosemont was the scene of the improbable softball comeback televised nationally by FS1. Erin Andris drove in the first run with a one-out double. Then came the second out, dimming the likelihood of any late-game magic.
Maranda Gutierrez reached on a hit-batsman. Jessica Cothern ripped an RBI double, making her 4-for-4 on the day with three RBIs and an earlier home run.
Then, with one swing, senior Morgan Greenwood blasted a three-run homer and suddenly, a deliriously happy Blue Demon team had pulled within a single run.
Kate Polucha walked and advanced to second on a Villanova error. Freshman Gabby O'Riley delivered a clutch single to left that scored Polucha. Viles, who had singled to start the rally way-back when, found the gap for a two-run double in her second at-bat of the inning. Right before our eyes, DePaul led 11-9.
Villanova's lone run in the top of the seventh wasn't enough to deny first-year coach Tracy Adix-Zins and her never-say-die players a three-peat BIG EAST title and automatic berth into the NCAA regionals.
Winning pitcher Natalie Halvorson was named Most Outstanding Player and was joined on the all-tournament team by Cothern, Greenwood and Polucha. Gutierrez was chosen BIG EAST Defensive Player of the Year and was joined on the All-BIG EAST First Team by Cothern. Polucha and O'Riley were named to the second team.
This was also the coming-out season for women's track and field as coach Dave Dopek's team set a program record by finishing second at both the BIG EAST Indoor Championships and the Outdoor Championships.
Senior Jade Nolan dominated the long jump and triple jump at both the indoor and outdoor meets, earning the Women's Outstanding Field Performer at both championships. Sophomore sprinter Brendan van Voorhis was honored as the Men's Outstanding Track Performer after winning gold medals in the 200-meter dash and a pair of relays while finishing second in the 400 meters to teammate Henry Larkin. Freshman Larkin won every race he entered and tied Dopek's iconic school record in the 400 that was set in 1995.
The combined men's and women's track teams qualified six student-athletes for the NCAA West Outdoor Track Preliminaries.
Men's golf under the direction of coach Marty Schiene and led by record-setting Charlie Spencer-White finished second at the BIG EAST Championship. Spencer-White's individual BIG EAST runner-up finish is the highest for any Blue Demon golfer in school history, and his teammates matched the program-best second place that was achieved by the 2015 team.
Coach Dave Leitao, seniors Eli Cain and All-BIG EAST Second Team selection Max Strus along with BIG EAST Most Improved Player Paul Reed sparked men's basketball to a winning season and a runner-up finish in the Roman College Basketball Invitational.
The strong postseason performance set the Blue Demons on a path to return this storied program to its glory years as Strus also garnered NABC All-District honors. The nation's No. 17-ranked recruiting class is headed to Lincoln Park for next season featuring consensus top 50 national recruit 6-foot, 7-inch Romeo Weems, top 100 national recruit Markese Jacobs from the Public League's Uplift High School and guard Oscar Lopez.
They will be joined by former California standout point guard Charlie Moore who transferred in after playing at Kansas last season. Moore was the 2016 Illinois Mr. Basketball and Sun-Times Player of the Year while starring at Morgan Park. The Blue Demons will also welcome transfers Darious Hall (Arkansas) and 6-9 Carte'Are Gordon (Saint Louis). Hall was a national top 50 recruit coming out of high school and ESPN ranked Gordon No. 75.
Women's soccer qualified for its seventh consecutive BIG EAST Championship led by All-East Region and All-BIG EAST first-teamer Franny Cerny and All-BIG EAST Second Team selection Adrian Walker. Mollie Erikkson and Ellie Mink were named to the BIG EAST All-Freshman Team.
Vito Tonejc had a sparkling debut to his collegiate tennis career and was voted by the league's coaches as the BIG EAST Freshman of the Year. Ascending to the No. 1 singles position, Tonejc was also voted onto the All-BIG EAST Team as the Blue Demons advanced to the BIG EAST semifinals for the fourth consecutive year.
Keisha Clousing and Aspasia Avgeri headed up the All-BIG EAST First Team in women's tennis while teammates Marija Jovicic and championship heroine Kuzmenkova were named All-BIG EAST Second Team. Jovicic was also chosen the BIG EAST Championship Most Outstanding Player. Coach Mark Ardizzone and assistant coach Yuliya Shupenia were honored as the BIG EAST Coaching Staff of the Year.
"The student-athletes who choose DePaul have very broad shoulders," said DePaul Athletics Director Jean Lenti Ponsetto.  "Our coaches do an amazing job recruiting student-athletes who have extraordinary capacity to compete at a high level academically in the classroom and athletically in the Big East Conference. And if that weren't enough, they share their very generous hearts in our community and throughout Chicagoland every day in very profound ways.
"They have unbelievable determination and grit which generates the will to achieve and be successful. It's apparent when you see where opposing coaches picked us to finish and you see our student-athletes and coaches develop an edge to really excel and surpass all expectations.
"Our teams maximize their potential and have the intellect, skill and focus to achieve in the most critical of times. That is one of the strengths of our athletics program that sparked this year of comebacks and excellence."
In other highlights, Grays earned WBCA honorable mention All-America honors along with All-BIG EAST First Team. Stonewall was voted onto the All-BIG EAST Second Team and Lexi Held was selected to the BIG EAST All-Freshman Team. Ashton Millender, who was invited to the WNBA Chicago Sky tryout camp, won the BIG EAST Sportsmanship Award.
Grays was a repeat selection and Strus a first-time honoree on the I-AAA ADA national Scholar-
Athlete Team as selected by the nation's athletics directors. Clousing was the ITA Midwest Region winner of the Cissie Leary Sportsmanship Award.
Here is a rundown on 2018-19 DePaul awards winners:
Rev. John R. Cortelyou, C.M. Award
Kyle Decker - Men's Track and Field
Emily Eller - Â Women's Track and Field
Rev. Edward F. Riley, C.M. Memorial Award
Eli Cain - Men's Basketball
Kyle Decker - Men's Track and Field
Harry Hilling - Men's Soccer
Jean Nordberg Memorial Award
Franny Cerny - Women's Soccer
Morgan Greenwood - Softball
Caroline Kurdej - Women's Cross-Country
Ashton Millender – Women's Basketball
Michael Hie Memorial Award
Stephanie DiCaro, Admininstration
Michaelis Wilson, Softball
Paul Stromberg, Athletics Communications
Alana Dickens, Athletics Communications
Sports Performance Award
Laura Edwards, Women's Track and Field
Max Strus, Men's Basketball
Community Service Awards
Team Cup: Women's Basketball
Individual: Isaac Walker, Men's Track and Field
Most Outstanding Performer
Men's Soccer – Max de Bruijne               Â
Golf – Charlie Spencer-White
Women's Soccer – Franny Cerny
Volleyball – Emma Price                                              Â
Women's Basketball – Mart'e Grays
Men's Basketball – Max Strus
Men's Cross Country – Noah Deck
Women's Cross Country – Caroline Kurdej
Men's Indoor Track – Kyle Decker
Men's Outdoor Track – Brendan Van Voorhis                   Â
Women's Indoor Track – Kiersten Walker                                           Â
Women's Outdoor Track – Jade Nolan                                 Â
Women's Tennis – Keisha Clousing                                        Â
Men's Tennis - Vito Tonejc                       Â
Softball – Morgan Greenwood
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Wednesday, March 19
Episode 11: DeWayne Peevy, Vice President/Director of Athletics
Wednesday, December 18
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Thursday, August 01