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Women's Sports

Shippensburg’s Jazmin Petrantonio Named the DII Honda Award Finalist for Field Hockey

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by: Collegiate Women’s Awards

Jazmin Petrantonio, a senior midfield/forward from Shippensburg University, was named the DII Honda Athlete of the Year finalist for Field Hockey as announced today by Executive Director Chris Voelz of THE Collegiate Women Sports Awards (CWSA) presented by Honda.

Petrantonio is now designated one of 11 finalists for the prestigious DII Honda Athlete of the Year. This will be voted on at the end of the academic year by national balloting among 1,000 NCAA member schools as part of THE CWSA program, now in its 46th year.

“Never in a million years did I think I was going to find myself in this position,” Petrantonio said. “It is the result of an endless amount of support from everyone I have met along the way at Shippensburg and even from those that I haven’t met but helped me to get where I am today. No words will do enough justice to everything that Shippensburg Athletics have given me since I stepped on campus in 2017, and for that I will always be indebted with the sport, the SUFH program, my teammates, coaches and administrators,” said Petrantonio.

Petrantonio, hailing from Saenz Pena, Argentina, led her team to the 2021 NCAA Division II Field Hockey Championship and was named the Most Outstanding Player of the tournament after helping the Raiders to its sixth national championship in school history and fourth in the last five seasons. She also earned All-Tournament Team honors for the third time in her career.

The midfielder/forward finished her historic career with a school record 106 career goals, the third-most in NCAA Division II history. She is a three-time NFHCA First-Team All-American and a four-time All-PSAC First-Team honoree after earning her second PSAC Field Hockey Athlete of the Year honor (2018, 2021). She was also named the NFHCA National Player of the Year in 2018.

“On behalf of the team we want to congratulate Jazmin on this prestigious honor in being named a DII Honda Athlete of the Year Finalist. Jazmin is an elite student-athlete and an impactful leader in our campus community. I am very proud of all her accomplishments academically, athletically, and professionally within our university. Jazmin has become a trailblazer in DII field hockey, we are very happy for her as she receives this honor,” stated head coach Tara Zollinger.

All Honda Sports nominees from DII and DIII become a finalist for the prestigious 2022 Honda Athlete of the Year in their respective divisions, presented in a live telecast on CBS Sports Network on June 27, 2022, in downtown Los Angeles. The Honda Award finalists are recognized in 11 DII and DIII NCAA-sanctioned sports; cross country, basketball, field hockey, golf, lacrosse, soccer, softball, swimming & diving, tennis, volleyball, and track & field.

The CWSA, entering its 46th year, has honored the nation’s top NCAA women athletes for their superior athletic skills, leadership, academic excellence and eagerness to participate in community service.  Since commencing its partnership in 1986, Honda has provided more than $3.4 million in institutional grants to the universities of the award winners and nominees to support women’s athletics programs.  

About Honda Corporate Social Responsibility: For more than 60 years in the U.S., Honda has been committed to making positive contributions to the communities where its associates live and work. Honda’s mission is to create products and services that improve the lives of people while conducting its business in a sustainable manner and fostering a diverse and inclusive workplace. Accordingly, Honda believes in helping people reach their life’s potential through its focus on the areas of education, the environment, mobility, traffic safety and community. Learn more at http://csr.honda.com/.

CATARINA MACARIO, CHLOE KIM AND MORE: 20 FEMALE ATHLETES TO KNOW IN 2022

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As 2021 comes to an end, it’s time to look forward to the year ahead in sports.

With the Winter Olympics in February, March Madness on the calendar and a landmark NWSL season to come, women’s sports fans are in store for an exciting year.

Here are the 20 athletes to know or get reacquainted with in 2022: 

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EMMA RADUCANU NAMED 2021 BBC SPORTS PERSONALITY OF THE YEAR

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BY: EMMA HRUBY | just women’s sports

Emma Raducanu has been named the BBC Sports Personality of the Year for 2021 after a breakout year that saw her win the US Open.

At just 18 years old, Raducanu ended Britain’s 44-year title drought in women’s Grand Slam singles, while also becoming the first qualifier to win at the US Open. The youngest British player to win a Grand Slam, she also was the youngest women’s Grand Slam champion since Maria Sharapova won Wimbledon in 2004.

Raducanu accepted the award from the BBC over video after testing positive for COVID-19 ahead of the Mubadala World Tennis Championship exhibition event. She’s set to compete in the Australian Open next month.

“It’s such an honour just to be among these nominees. Congrats to you and all your achievements,” Raducanu said in her awards speech. “I’m really happy with this, I’ve watched Sports Personality of the Year growing up and it’s an honour to be among those past winners. I’m happy for British tennis as well, and that we’ve managed to get this award… again!

“Thanks to all the fans and voters, this year has been insane. The energy this year playing at Wimbledon in front of my home crowd, that was something I’ve never felt before.”

In addition to her US Open win, Raducanu made a run to the fourth round at Wimbledon in July in what was her Grand Slam main draw debut.

Last week, three-time winner of the award Andy Murray said that Raducanu deserved to win the award, adding that he didn’t think “anyone would be too surprised if that is the outcome.”

Murray was the last tennis player to win the award in 2016.

Raducanu is the first female to win BBC Sports Personality of the Year since Zara Phillips (now Tindall) won it in 2006.

Puma Has Its First Women’s Basketball Collection

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By Devine Blacksher

“Every other sports brand is taking a male-centric approach,” says author, costume designer, stylist, and #Rockmom June Ambrose while explaining the vision behind Puma’s first women’s basketball collection. “They’re keeping it safe with mesh shorts and tank tops. My whole entire career has been about taking risks, tapping into my authentic intelligence to make decisions for a consumer who I want to see imagining themselves outside of themself. You can’t do that without trying on things that scare you a little bit.”Court Appearances A newsletter by New York‘s Choire Sicha, covering the Ghislaine Maxwell trial.

In 2020, Ambrose joined Puma as the creative director of womenswear for the brand’s basketball category, Puma Hoops. She focused on transforming the women’s basketball collection into gear that can be worn while training or while meeting your friends for a cozy Sunday brunch. With her hand in everything from design to creative, Ambrose set out to add personal flair to the brand’s apparel, accessories, and footwear by reinventing what women’s basketball wear can look like.

Take professional athletes like Serena Williams, Elizabeth Cambage, and Ashlyn Harris — they all have a personal style they sport on and off the field or court. For Ambrose, it was important to create a collection with women of all ages, body types, and identities in mind, while acknowledging the history of women being unseen and unheard in professional, and even recreational, sports.

The Puma High Court collection is a first for the brand; in the past, the women’s basketball category simply looked like the men’s but in smaller sizes. The new collection was designed to celebrate the contributions, fearlessness, and boldness of all the women of Puma. The visuals for the campaign were directed by Hype Williams and feature WNBA stars Skylar Diggins-Smith, Breanna Stewart, Katie Lou Samuelson, and Jackie Young.

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Three Women’s Soccer Members Named All-CCIW

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Liesl Whitener, Molly Fank First Team and Kayla Garcia Second Team were named CCIW All-Conference on Tuesday

APERVILLE, Ill. — Liesl Whitener, Molly Fank, and Kayla Garcia of Augustana Vikings women’s soccer were named to the CCIW’s all-conference teams on Tuesday, with Whitener and Fank earning First Team honors and Garcia earning Second Team.

Whitener led a balanced Vikings offensive attack in goals this season with four that included one game-winner. She was the team leader in assists with four and was the top points-getter with 12. The sophomore started all 16 games played this season and was second on the team in both shots and shots on goal. In league play, she ranked in the top ten in four different categories, including second in assists and seventh in shots.

Joining her on First Team, Fank played a pivotal role on the defense side that helped the team ranked third in goals allowed this season. The junior anchored a defense that posted five shutouts this season and held opponents to just 1.13 goals per contest. She had one goal on 11 shots this year.

Garcia joins her teammates on the All-CCIW selection list on Second Team after finishing second on the team with three goals during the regular season. The junior from Rock Island started all 16 games played this year and led the team in shots (47) and shots on goal (24). She ranked third in the conference in 2021 with two game-winning goals.

This year’s selections makes it three straight seasons the Vikings have placed three members on the all-conference list. No CCIW selections were made in 2020 due to COVID-19. Senior Anna Bross was also named a recipient of the CCIW’s RESPECT Award.

Allyson Felix, Naomi Osaka Earn Women’s Sports Awards

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by: AP News

NEW YORK (AP) — Olympians Allyson Felix and Jordan Larson were honored as Sportswomen of the Year by the Women’s Sports Foundation.

Felix won two medals at the Tokyo Games — giving her 11 in her career — to surpass Carl Lewis as the most decorated American in Olympic track and field history. Larson led the U.S. women’s volleyball team to victory against Brazil for its first Olympic gold medal.

Naomi Osaka earned the Wilma Rudolph Courage Award for bringing awareness to social justice and mental health issues at the Annual Salute to Women in Sports on Wednesday night.

“I got the courage just to speak out growing up and seeing all of the people around me doing amazing things,” Osaka said, “and not having any fear and standing up for what they believe in.”

Kim Ng of the Miami Marlins, the first female general manager in baseball, received the Billie Jean King Leadership Award. Larry Scott, the former commissioner of the Pac 12 and former CEO of the WTA Tour, accepted the Champion for Equality Award.ADVERTISEMENThttps://65bceafc6476064c638f4381ef648bbd.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html

A reception with King was held at the New-York Historical Society ahead of the virtual awards show. Also featured on the virtual program were former baseball manager Joe Torre, Olympic hockey star Meghan Duggan, two-time World Cup champion Julie Foudy, Stanford women’s basketball coach Tara VanDerveer and Women’s Sports Foundation President Phaidra Knight.

Hyundia World Archery Cup: Williams Tops Ellison In All-American Final; Kaufhold Claims Women’s Crown

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With the Hyundai World Archery Cup held on U.S. soil for the first time, it was appropriate the men’s title match was an All-American affair.

Jack Williams of California won a shootout over Brady Ellison of Arizona for the gold medal Thursday at Riverside Park, the last two standing from among the division’s eight best men in the world.

Their finale not only guaranteed gold for the U.S. but also marked the first time that the host nation has won the World Archery Cup.

Williams said he felt great about his performance, and winning the gold medal in an All-American final on U.S. soil made it that much sweeter.

“For something like that to happen for the first time, and for me to be that person, is amazing,” he said. “For an archery tournament, this was a really good crowd, and it was great to have all these people cheering for us.”

The two men weren’t the only ones making history for the United States while in Yankton. Last week, Casey Kaufhold of Pennsylvania claimed silver in the women’s recurve at the World Archery Championships, the highest finish in 33 years for a U.S. woman in a world championship. On Thursday, she returned for the World Cup finals and fell just short of another medal.

And she’s only 17 years old.

“It feels really good to win the silver medal, and it makes it even more special to win it in your home country,” she said. “It felt wonderful to have people here supporting me. I have my coach and a lot of teammates here, cheering me on. It was a great atmosphere, and I’m super happy to win.”

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Meet the Athletes: Casey Kaufhold

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Casey Kaufhold is a 17-year-old archer looking to make her Olympic debut. She won bronze in the women’s individual recurve event at the 2019 Pan American Games and took gold in the mixed team event paired with veteran Brady Ellison. She also won gold in the women’s team event.

As part of our preparation for the Olympic Games in Tokyo, NBC Olympics sent questionnaires to a wide range of athletes to learn more about their lives on and off the field of play. 

Here’s some of what we found out about Casey Kaufhold:

Tell us about your family.
My parents, Robert and Carole Kaufhold, own Lancaster Archery Supply. My dad has an archery background and made two national field teams for the U.S. My [older] brother, Conner, is also involved in archery. He also likes to hunt and fish.

What’s a typical training day like?
I train during outdoor season about four to five hours each day, and for indoors I practice three to five hours a day. I sleep about eight hours, from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.

What’s your favorite workout?
I like doing cardio like running, swimming, or biking. I’ll go on runs with my coach and we will race each other on the way back.

What’s the most grueling workout you’ve ever done?
When I used to do gymnastics, we would have workout days during our camps and the hardest circuit we did was a five-minute dead hang on bars and then a two-minute wall handstand followed by 20 leg lifts from a dead hang again.

What’s your first memory of archery?
My earliest memory of me doing archery is when I used to do compound archery. I was on a 3D target course and I had to “sneak up” or move closer to the targets because my bow didn’t shoot the length of the full distance. I think that memory was when I was 5 years old. I liked archery because it was so different from any other sport I had ever tried. I wanted to dedicate my life to it when I placed top three in my first national senior outdoor event.

What’s your earliest memory of watching the Olympics?
The first memory of me watching the Olympics was when Simone Biles, a U.S. gymnast, went to her first Games is 2016. At the time I wanted to go to the Olympics for gymnastics. I definitely wanted to do something I loved in a setting that big.

Is there anything you wish you could change about your sport?
I wish that archery had the rushing feeling of performing like gymnastics or figure skating does. I miss the way performing for the crowd and how moving to the music felt in gymnastics. I wish a part of archery could give me that same feeling of exhilaration.

What’s the biggest obstacle you’ve overcome?
In order to participate in the 2020 Olympics, I had to begin competing at 70 meters at 14 years of age. I skipped over valuable competition years at 50 and 60 meters in order to achieve my goals.

What’s your music of choice while training?
My go-to song before a competition is “Don’t Stop Me Now” by Queen. I like a lot of older music. My top five songs on my playlist are “Put Your Head on My Shoulder” by Paul Anka, “Brandy (You’re a Fine Girl)” by Looking Glass, “Careless Whisper” by George Michael, “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” by Marvin Gaye, and “My Girl” by The Temptations.

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Paralympics Serving Specialist Emma Schieck Recounts USA’s Gold-Medal-Winning Trip to Tokyo

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by: VPM Staff

Editor’s note: Emma Schieck, is an outside hitter from Statesville, North Carolina. She is just 20 years old, but the product of South Iredell High School just had the most amazing experience of her young life at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. We asked the University of North Carolina junior to write about it:

Hi, my name is Emma Schieck, and I am a Paralympic gold medalist. That may seem like an abrupt introduction, but consider it my way of promising you that this long story has a happy ending. 

My volleyball career began when I was 7 years old and first fell in love with the standing version of the sport. Volleyball was not always easy for me, mostly because of my physical disability. Due to complications at birth, I have from a Brachial Plexus Injury (BPI). My BPI affects my left arm and means that I cannot straighten or rotate my arm and it does not go behind my back. My limited strength and range of motion meant I had to work harder just to keep up with the other girls.

Nine years into my volleyball career I met Elliot Blake, the coordinator for USA Volleyball’s Developmental Sitting Volleyball Program and he introduced me to sitting volleyball. I was hesitant at first because of how difficult the sport is. My arm doesn’t reach the floor, so I struggled to move to the ball and that made everything else about the sport even more difficult. As hard as it was, I loved the challenge and began to get the hang of it. After a long standing volleyball career, I was shocked to find a sport that I loved even more.

Sitting volleyball was a faster and more condensed version of the sport I had spent years playing, and it wasn’t long until I was hooked. I would play at home with my able-bodied volleyball teammates, and they were also surprised at the difficulty of the sport but had fun trying it with me. My first training camp with the USA Women’s National Sitting Volleyball Team was in 2017, only six months after my introduction to sitting volleyball. It was incredible to be surrounded by other athletes with physical disabilities who were as passionate as myself. In January 2019, I learned that I had been named to the team and my next goal became making the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Roster.

That became a reality this summer. Earlier this month, I got back from a two-week adventure in Tokyo where I was competing alongside my team in the Paralympics. Since being home, many people have asked me about my time in Tokyo and often I can’t help but laugh and say it was the most indescribable experience I could ever imagine, but here is my best attempt at putting it into words. 

For the entire first week and a half of July this year, I walked around with my phone attached to my hip. I knew that any day my head coach, Bill Hamiter, would be calling to let me know whether I had been named to the Tokyo Paralympic roster. Nervous does not even begin to describe how I was feeling. We have 17 national-team athletes, but only 12 are named to the roster for each event that we go to. Our group of 17 is incredibly strong and capable, so there was really no point in even trying to guess what our roster would look like. 

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