Aces in Elon, N.C. for weekend tournament

 EVANSVILLE, Ind. – Action officially begins for the University of Evansville softball team as they are in Elon, N.C. for the Elon Softball Classic.

Friday’s opening day features games against Miami Ohio and Kent State.  The Purple Aces open Saturday with a rematch versus the Golden Flashes before squaring off against Elon.  UE completes the weekend on Sunday with another contest against the RedHawks.  Miami is the defending Mid-American Conference Champion and won two games in the NCAA Regionals.  Miami won 39 games a season ago.

Evansville’s 2024 squad brings back a wealth of experience with 20 players from last year’s team coming back.  UE finished the season with a 22-32 mark but excelled at home, going 15-8.  The entire regular starting lineup from 2023 returns including 5^th-year player Hannah Hood and Jess Willsey, who had the top batting average for the Purple Aces.

Jenna Nink and Hood batted .267 and .265 in 2023, respectively.  Alexa Davis led the team with 7 home runs, 24 RBI and 18 steals.

In the circle, the Purple Aces see their top three pitchers from last season return in 2024.  Megan Brenton posted a team-best 2.23 ERA while earning six saves.  Sydney Weatherford led the team with six wins while recording a 3.33 ERA.  Mikayla Jolly was third on last year’s team with a 3.58 ERA and made 21 starts.

Close to 100 kids from Evansville were in attendance

EVANSVILLE, Ind. – In a community event that served close to 100 members of the Evansville community, the University of Evansville Athletics Department teamed up with Fifth Third Bank to hold a National Girls and Women in Sports Day celebration on Saturday.

“Our inaugural UE National Girls and Women is Sports Day was a huge success,” UE Director of Athletics Dr. Kenneth “Ziggy” Siegfried exclaimed.  “This special day would not have been possible without the support of Fifth Third Bank. A big thank you to Fifth Third Bank, the NGWSD Committee, our female student-athletes, and all the participants. We look forward to continuing this event in the future.”

A full afternoon was on the docket for the local youth who numbered close to 100 in attendance.  Female Purple Aces student-athletes took part in a clinic that saw the attendees go from station to station as to experience multiple facets of sports.  Participants played softball, basketball, soccer, volleyball, golf and track while spending time with some of UE’s Athletic Trainers to learn about those operations.

“This event brought together some of the most important values that Fifth Third Bank stands for – community, education and mentorship,” John Raisor of Fifth Third Bank said.  “We were pleased to team up with the University of Evansville to put on an unforgettable event that impacted so many within the Evansville community.”

Aces Spirit Squad members got things started, spending time with the participants to teach them a few cheers before everyone split into smaller groups.  After moving through all stations of the clinic, the attendees enjoyed a meal that was made possible by Fifth Third Bank before attending the UE women’s basketball game inside Meeks Family Fieldhouse.  Families of the clinic participants joined them for the basketball game, adding over 300 to the crowd.

The reach of the day’s events was not limited to members of the local community.  Prior to the clinic, a luncheon for UE’s 120 female student-athletes, female sport coaches and female administrators and staff took place.  Aces Deputy Athletics Director for Internal Operations Sarah Solinsky moderated a panel with women’s sports pioneer Lois Patton and former women’s basketball player Kiya (Griffin) Lander.

Going forward, the department has aspirations to hold the event on an annual basis while seeing its reach expand and continue to have an impact on the local community.

VINCENNES, Ind. – The Vincennes University Trailblazers climbed back into the top-five in this week’s NJCAA Division I National rankings, moving up one spot to No. 5.

The Blazers looked to be off to a quick start Wednesday night when VU hosted Shawnee Community College from Ullin, Illinois, but quickly fell behind after going cold offensively late in the first half.

Trailing by as many as 11 in the second half, the Trailblazers battled their way back to pick up a 67-62 victory over the Saints.

Vincennes got off to a quick start Wednesday night in front of the home crowd, scoring 12 of the first 15 points of the game to build an early nine point lead, which would hold at 16-7.

Shawnee would come to life though midway through the opening period, outscoring VU 11-2 to even the score at 18-18 and later use a 12-2 run to take a 30-21 lead.

VU would cut the deficit down to eight with a late free throw to end the first half, heading into the locker room trailing Shawnee 30-22.

Shawnee continued to ride the momentum of their first half run into the second half, building their largest lead of the game at 37-26 and holding a 41-31 lead.

VU answered back in a big way to swing the momentum back with 11 unanswered to take a 42-41 lead with just under 12:30 remaining on the clock.

The lead changed hands nine times during the second half of play, with VU trailing by four at 50-46 before rallying back again to take a 51-50 lead with under six minutes to play.

Vincennes got a big late game boost from back-to-back threes by sophomore Kent King (Washington, D.C.) and freshman Lebron Thomas (Bishopville, S.C.), connecting from behind the arc just before the shot clock buzzer sounded to give the Blazers a 61-56 advantage.

This lead would hold for the Blazers as VU put the game away at the free throw line, giving Vincennes the 67-62 victory over the Saints.

“Cold would be an understatement to describe the end of that first half,” VU Hall of Fame Head Coach Todd Franklin said. “We just quit functioning. Over the last two and a half weeks I’ve said that I’m going to sit over here and there’s no more ‘I can’t play because Coach is being too tough’. I’m still giving the instructions and I didn’t see any reason in the world why we shouldn’t be able to function but we didn’t.”

“We were in a position early to really put them down and in trouble,” Franklin added. “The game was really sitting there and it was there for us to take control of the game and we went from that to nobody functioning. We’ve got an army of sophomores. We’ve got an army of sophomores who have been through it and have played in an Elite Eight. Been in big games, been in these positions, etc. But if you watched that half, did you see anything that said we have a bunch of old sophomores? So it’s a problem.”

“Somehow I haven’t gotten across to them whatever it is, but we can’t continue with that,” Franklin said. “We’ll see if we make some changes before Saturday because that can’t happen. Shawnee doubled the post. That’s it. They totally sold out to double the post. We work on that, obviously, because we go into the post all of the time. We train for that and have actions that get us open, but it really didn’t matter because we really didn’t want any part of it. The perimeter didn’t want any part of it. They didn’t want any part of an open shot. The post still could have gone up and scored but they didn’t go through it with enough intensity.”