Sports Briefs
Boland Tabbed to Lead Tennis Programs
Two-time Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) National Coach of the Year Brian Boland was named Baylor Director of Tennis and men’s head coach in late May.
Boland won four national championships in a five-year span (2013-2017) at the University of Virginia, and he spent the past year as head of men’s tennis for the United States Tennis Association (USTA) Player Development.
“My family and I are thrilled to be part of the Baylor Bears Athletics Department,” Boland said. “We are committed to Baylor’s mission and values, and we look forward to rejoining college tennis and continuing the tradition of excellence that has been established at Baylor.”
Boland has a career record of 574-90 and 17 NCAA Tournament appearances in 21 seasons as a collegiate head coach at Virginia and Indiana State (1997-2001). His Virginia squads reached at least the national semifinals in 10 of his final 11 seasons, and the Cavaliers claimed 13 consecutive Atlantic Coast Conference titles. Boland has coached 43 All-Americans, four NCAA singles champions, three NCAA doubles champions and three ITA National Players of the Year.
“Brian is a man of tremendous integrity who shares our common values of Preparing Champions for Life,” Baylor Vice President and Director of Intercollegiate Athletics Mack Rhodes said. “Under his leadership, our men’s tennis program will continue to compete for national championships while living out the distinctively unique mission of Baylor University.”
Boland replaces Baylor Athletics Hall of Fame member Matt Knoll, who resigned following the 2018 season. Knoll led the Bears to the 2004 NCAA national title, 13 regular-season Big 12 titles, eight Big 12 tournament tiles, and amassed a 510-150 record during his 22 seasons at Baylor.
Sprint Relay Team Sets Program Record
Baylor Track and Field’s sprint medley relay team members etched their names into the Baylor records book twice this year and set one of the top marks in NCAA history.
The quartet of juniors Taylor Bennett and Kiana Horton with sophomores Victoria Powell and Aaliyah Miller posted a time of 3 minutes, 42.11 seconds at the National Relays Championships in April. It was the seventh fastest time in NCAA history and eclipsed the program record the quartet established one month earlier at the Texas Relays. Horton was named Big 12 Conference Performer of the Year, while Miller was named
Big 12 Freshman of the Year.
On the men’s side, junior Wil London won a tight 400-meter race at the Big 12 Outdoor Championship, held in May at Baylor’s Clyde Hart Track and Field Stadium. His time of 45.06 seconds was two hundredths of a second better than the second-place competitor and made him the second athlete in Big 12 history to win three 400-meter titles. The other was Baylor’s Darold Williamson, a 2004 Olympic gold medalist and 2004 Big 12 Outdoor Performer of the Year.
Golf Teams Return to Nationals
Baylor’s men’s and women’s golf teams both qualified for the 2018 NCAA Championships, held at Oklahoma State University’s Karsten Creek Golf Club.
It was the men’s team’s third consecutive appearance, while the women’s team reached the championship event for the third time in four seasons.
The women’s team tied for eighth in the four-round, 24-team event, climbing from 21st after the opening round. No. 26 Baylor, which carded a cumulative 33-over par team score, lost to ninth-ranked Arizona on the second playoff hole that determined which team advanced to the match-play portion of the championship.
Freshman Gurleen Kaur tied for seventh in the individual standings, shooting a 1-under 287 that included a 4-under 68 in the final round. Kaur became the fourth Baylor women’s golfer to earn NCAA Championship All-Tournament honors.
The men’s team finished 30th with a cumulative team score of 46-over in the three-round event. Senior Matthew Perrine was Baylor’s low individual, carding an 8-over 224 to tie for 46th in a 151-person field.
Friudenberg, Scroggins Set Softball Records
Seniors Shelby Friudenberg and Jessie Scroggins capped stellar Baylor Softball careers by rewriting the records book in 2018. Along the way, they led the Lady Bears to an eighth straight NCAA Tournament regional berth.
Friudenberg broke the program’s long-
standing career records for home runs and RBI, both previously held by Chelsi Lake. After establishing Baylor’s freshman home run record in 2015, Friudenberg finished her career with 49 home runs and 194 RBI.
Scroggins’ season batting average of .461 established a program record, 31 points better than the previous mark set by Lindsey Cargill one year earlier. Following the season, Scroggins became the second player in Baylor history to earn first-team All-America honors.