Fresno State Athletics
On the Seventh Day of Christmas
12/20/2009 12:00:00 AM | General
Dec. 20, 2009
FRESNO, Calif. - On the seventh day of Christmas Timeout brought the Red Wave seven years of Joe Kearney Award winners. Each year the Western Athletic Conference honors the top male and female athletes in the conference and in the last seven years five Bulldogs have been recognized.
In the last seven years the following former Bulldogs have been honored with the Joe Kearney Award, women's tennis player Melanie Gloria, baseball players Tom Mendonca and Steve Susdorf, softball players Jamie Southern and men's golfer Nick Watney.
Mendonca was the 2009 WAC Player of the Year after he led the league and ranked third nationally in home runs (27). A semifinalist for the Dick Howser and Golden Spikes National Player of the Year Awards, he was named to five All-America teams in 2009.
Mendonca led his team to three consecutive WAC Tournament titles and the 2008 NCAA Championship, as he was named Most Outstanding Player of the College World Series after tying a College World Series record with four home runs. In just three years, he blasted 56 home runs, shattering the Fresno State career record by 13 and tying for fourth place all-time in WAC history.
Gloria is a four-time WAC Player of the Year and led the Bulldogs to four consecutive WAC titles. The 2009 ITA Northwest Region Senior Player of the Year, she was a third team Academic All-American and was named the Fresno State Bulldog of the Year as a senior.
Gloria concluded her career with 123 singles wins, good for second place in school history. She reached No. 1 in the ITA doubles national rankings in 2008, and earned All-America status in both singles and doubles, becoming only the second two-time All-American singles player in school history.
Susdorf earned the Kearney Award in 2008. He was the 2008 WAC Player of the Year in baseball and helped lead the Bulldogs to their first-ever College World Series title. He is a three-time first-team all-WAC selection. Susdorf also was named an ESPN the Magazine second-team Academic All-American.
During the 2008 baseball season, Susdorf drove in 87 runs which was the third-best single-season mark in Fresno State history. The outfielder also scored 80 runs in 2008, helping drive the Bulldogs' cinderella performance in the College World Series. He is the Bulldogs' all-time leader in RBI (217) and doubles (70).
Southern earned the Kearney Award in 2005. She graduated as one of Fresno State's most decorated student-athletes in school history. Including being a four-year starter on the nationally ranked Bulldog team, she earned three WAC championships and played in four-straight NCAA Softball Championships.
Southern was also a member of the USA National Team, helping the Elite Team to a gold medal at the 10th Canada Cup. Southern started against the 1996 Olympic Silver Medalist China, two-time Olympic Gold Medalist United States and two-time Olympic bronze Medalist Australia. In the final USA Elite statistics, Southern posted a team-best 5-0 record with two shutouts, striking out 37 for a team-best ERA of 0.17.
Watney was named the recipient of the Kearney Award in 2003. Watney finished as the No. 1 ranked golfer in the nation by both the Golfstat Cup standings and GolfWeek/Sagarin ratings with a 69.07 stroke average. He opened the season with four straight wins and propelled the Bulldogs to a tournament win at the Fresno State Lexus Classic.
Watney followed his record-breaking fall, resetting his own school single-season stroke average at 69.93 in the spring. The mark is the fifth-lowest season stroke average in NCAA Division I history. The All-American picked up another tournament win, crushing the course record at the Bite/Pacific Coast Intercollegiate by 10 strokes firing a three-day 199. Watney helped the Bulldogs win the 2003 WAC title, earning the WAC Golfer of the Year award for the third straight time, the first WAC golfer do so.
On the seventh day of Christmas Timeout brought the Red Wave seven years of Joe Kearny Award winners, six years in the save Mart Center, five years of Cleveland, volleyball a fourth place finish, their best finish in five years, three-pointers from women's basketball, two national championships and the No. 1 women's tennis doubles team.
