CHICAGO - Chicago State University Athletics had made some strides during the calendar year 2017 in helping improve the department looking towards the future as a member of the Western Athletic Conference.
Let's take a look back at some of the top moments in CSU Athletics from the past year!!! Â
Women's Soccer Posts First Shutout Win in School History
The biggest highlight for the Green and White this season was producing their first shutout victory in school history on Aug. 25 when they knocked off host Saint Xavier on the road, 1-0.
After a dominant first half to where CSU held a 9-0 shooting advantage, senior Sara Marcotte (Republic, Mo./Republic) took a pass from sophomore Mariela Alba (Hanover Park, Ill./Bartlett) and breezed past the SXU defense before booting a shot to the back of the net in the 49th minute to the game's only score. The Cougar defense held tough defensively in the final 41 minutes for the win with junior Audra Wisehart (Sandusky, Ohio/Huron) tallying two saves.
Wattley Earns Scholarship at 2017 NABA Convention
Rohan Wattley (Slough, United Kingdom/Burnham) has been known for his hard work both on the tennis court and in the classroom during his three-plus years at Chicago State with a payoff that came on June 9 in New Orleans.
The Slough, United Kingdom native was honored at the National Association of Black Accountants Convention by receiving a scholarship from the organization and RSM Global, a leading U.S. provider of audit, tax and consulting services. Wattley was the only student from a Chicago-area college or university that earned a scholarship from .the NABA.
Baseball's Paciello Featured on ESPN Sportscenter's Top 10
Getting featured on the Top 10 Plays of the Day on ESPN's Sportscenter is a pretty big deal - just ask CSU baseball senior student-athlete Matt Paciello (Wellington, Fla./Park Vista).
Paciello earned the third spot on the March 29 edition of Sportscenter as he made an acrobatic diving catch to rob Notre Dame's Matt Vierling of a base hit during the seventh inning of the Cougars' road contest against the Fighting Irish.
CSU Athletics Goes Penalty Free in NCAA Academic Progress Rate for Fourth Straight Year
Chicago State stayed penalty free for the fourth straight school year when the NCAA announced its Academic Progress Rate (APR) report in May which also saw six of its athletic teams see improvement on the previous year's scores.
The teams that saw improvements in their APR were men's tennis, baseball, women's golf, volleyball and men's golf with baseball and men's tennis producing the top APR scores in the Western Athletic Conference.
Men's Tennis Defeats Seattle to Advance to WAC Tournament Semifinals
Chicago State men's tennis made history on April 28 as it captured a 4-0 win over Seattle in the first round of the Western Athletic Conference Tournament for its first victory in a postseason conference tournament since the 2002 Mid-Continent Conference Tournament via a 4-3 defeat of UMKC in the third-place match.
The Green and White opened the match with Christian Gonzalez (Mungia, Spain/Larramendi Ikastola) and Gonzalo Martinez (Madrid, Spain/Nuestra Señora del Buen Consejo) taking the No. 1  before clinching the doubles point in the No. 3 flight as Rohan Wattley (Slough, United Kingdom/Burnham) and freshman Cody Wurzelbacher (Toledo, Ohio/Springfield) came back from a 4-1 deficit to score the final five points for a 6-4 win. Gaining singles wins to clinch the win were Martinez, Jiri Nouza and Gonzalez.
CSU Men's Basketball Raises Over $1,000 for Hurricane Relief in Valpo Exhibition Game
Prior to the start of the 2017-18 college basketball season, NCAA Division I schools staged special exhibition games in early November to raise money for Hurricane Relief from last summer, including the CSU men's basketball team.
The Cougars hosted Valparaiso on Nov. 4 at the Emil and Patricia Jones Convocation Center for their first exhibition home game since the 2011-12 season for this good cause to which they raised over $1,000 that was donated to the Lutheran World Relief organization for victims of Hurricane Harvey in the Houston area.
Women's Volleyball Captures First D-I In-Season Tournament Title Since 2004
Under the guidance of third-year head coach Brandon Reeves, Chicago State women's volleyball posted its best NCAA Division I non-conference mark in school history by finishing with a 9-8 record which included tallying the longing winning streak in program history at six in a row from Sept. 1-9.
Part of that streak came during the Eastern Illinois Panther Classic on the weekend of Sept. 8-9 for the Cougars' first D-I in-season tournament title in 13 years since winning the 2004 Youngstown State Invitational. CSU won the title after producing wins over in-state rivals Western Illinois (3-1) and the host Panthers (3-2) before sweeping Alabama A&M in three sets. Freshman Lacee Adams (Muncie, Ind./Muncie Central) was named the tournament's Most Valuable Player and was joined on the all-tournament team with junior teammate Lauryn Dela Cruz (Provo, Utah/Timpview).
Women's Golf Places Third at PGA Minority Championships
Chicago State women's golf concluded its spring season on a good note from May 12-14 after taking third place at the PGA Minority Championships, held at the Ryder Course of the PGA Golf Club in Port St. Lucie, Fla.
After sitting in fourth place through the first two days of competition, the Cougars carded a score of 305 to come back from a four-stroke deficit on the final 18 holes to edge North Carolina A&T. Rainstar Roque and Fernanda Valdes Solis each shot a 231 to lead the Green and White in the tournament.
Kostyuk and Shepherd Close Big Fall Season with ITA Midwest Regional Doubles Quarterfinal Berth
The big story for the CSU women's tennis team during its fall season was the doubles play of senior Mariya Kostyuk (Kyiv, Ukraine/International School) and freshman Iesha Shepherd (Nassau, Bahamas/Laurel Springs School). The tandem finished the fall with six wins and claimed WAC Doubles Team of the Month honors in October after winning the doubles title at the UIC Fall Invitational and placing second at the CSU Cougar Classic.
Kostyuk and Shepherd followed those accomplishments on Oct. 13-14 at the ITA Midwest Regional Championships in Ann Arbor, Mich., as they claimed wins over Youngstown State (first round) and Illinois (second round) to advance to the quarterfinals where they fell to Ohio State.
Glee Captures CSU's First WAC Title after Winning Indoor 400-Meter Dash Title
History was made in Nampa, Idaho on Feb. 25 as Jocindra Glee (Orlando, Fla./Evans) finished first in the 400-meter dash title at the WAC Indoor Track and Field Championships thus winning the first WAC title for Chicago State Athletics.
Glee crossed the finish line at a time of 56.88 in the finals after recording a season-best time of 56.49 in the semifinals. She became the first CSU female track and field athlete to win a conference championship in five years when Jaya Emerson claimed the Great West Conference indoor shot put crown in 2012.
