2022 Louisiana Athletics Year-In-Review

Dear Cajun Nation,

Happy New Year! I trust everyone was able to celebrate the holidays with friends and family. As we embark on a new year, I want to thank you for your continued support of Ragin' Cajuns Athletics and reflect on the many accomplishments this past year.

Our student-athletes continued their success in the classroom. Eight of our 16 programs achieved a team GPA of 3.0 or higher during the spring term (men's tennis, baseball, women's tennis, golf, soccer, softball, volleyball) while 11 did so this past fall (women's tennis, men's tennis, women's cross country, softball, soccer, golf, men's cross country, baseball, women's track and field, volleyball, men's track and field). Fifty-eight Louisiana student-athletes earned their degrees during the 2022 calendar year.

Embracing the department's core values, specifically service, our student-athletes and coaches continued to display servant leadership through community involvement. For the second consecutive year, Louisiana won the Sun Belt Conference Community Service Initiative. Men's Golf, Women's Tennis and Baseball each ranked first amongst their respective peers nationally, making Louisiana one of two schools in the nation with three top-ranked programs in community service. Overall, we logged the sixth-most hours in Division I. This Top 10 national finish is something we can all be very proud of!

Athletically, we achieved notable accomplishments and memories. Last season, Men's Basketball advanced to the championship game of the Sun Belt Conference tournament with both Kobe Julien and Jordan Brown earning All-Sun Belt Conference honors. Earlier this season, the team achieved a Top 10 ranking in the CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Poll and head coach Bob Marlin earned his 450^th career Division I victory. Women's Basketball touted the Sun Belt Conference Defensive Player of the Year in Ty'Reona Doucet, who also earned First Team All-Conference honors. She finished her career ranked second in program history with 977 rebounds, third with 160 blocked shots, and fifth with 1,417 career points.

Ragin' Cajuns Softball continued their success which included a third consecutive Sun Belt Conference regular season and tournament championship under head coach Gerry Glasco. It was also the program's 23rd consecutive 40-win season, culminating in extending the storied program's streak of consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances to 23. The Ragin' Cajuns placed a conference-high nine players on the All-Sun Belt team, recorded a program-record .351 season batting average and generated the most home runs in Coach Glasco's tenure (82).

Louisiana baseball claimed the Sun Belt Conference Tournament championship in only the second full season under head coach Matt Deggs, resulting in a NCAA Regional berth, the first since 2016. The Sun Belt Conference Tournament championship was Louisiana's fifth overall while the NCAA postseason berth was the 17^th in program history. Returning letterwinners Carson Roccaforte and Julian Brock were each named first-team All-Sun Belt Conference performers while Tyler Robertson (San Diego Padres) and Bo Bonds (Toronto Blue Jays) were each selected in the 2022 MLB Draft.

Men's Tennis, under first-year head coach Luc Godin, finished the Spring 2022 dual match season ranked No. 61 in the ITA Collegiate Tennis National Team Rankings and was one of only two teams in the state of Louisiana ranked and the highest in the Sun Belt Conference. Coach Godin's squad built a 17-win regular season on the strength of an impressive 14-match win streak while also capturing the title at the prestigious H-E-B Tournament of Champions. The winning streak, and the squad's 15-1 start that ran through mid-March, was a program best in the 2000s era. The success has earned the team a spot in the 2023 ITA Kickoff Weekend, the premier regular season tournament in collegiate tennis held in January.

For the first time since 2014, Louisiana Women's Tennis advanced in the Sun Belt Conference Tournament after defeating Georgia Southern, 4-3. Carla Urchoeguia earned Sun Belt Conference's Player of the Week on March 16 after she won two matches at No. 3 singles and one match at No. 1 doubles against South Alabama and Troy.

Headlined by First Team selections Sophie Daigle and Yves Cherubin, nine Louisiana Track and Field student-athletes earned All-Sun Belt Conference honors during the spring season. Caemon Scott, Chandler Mixon, and Marin Barras earned Second Team honors while Kashie Crockett, Nathan Fergusson, Rylan Theyard, and Taylor Davis made an appearance on the Third Team. Outdoor Sun Belt Conference titles were achieved by Sophie Daigle (10k) and Yves Cherubin (110m hurdles) while Indoor champions included Sophie Daigle (3k and 5k), Serenity Rogers (60m hurdles), and Brock Appiah (200m).

Cross Country's Sophie Daigle wrapped up her historic senior campaign at the NCAA Cross Country Championships where she placed 183^rd. She was the only runner from the state of Louisiana and the first-ever Ragin' Cajuns women's athlete to compete in the national championship!

Football earned a berth to a school-record fifth consecutive bowl game as first year head coach Mike Desormeaux led the team to the Independence Bowl for the first time in program history. Highlighted by four members on the first team, 11 different Ragin' Cajuns earned All-Sun Belt honors and return specialist Eric Garror was named an All-American by PFF College.

Ragin' Cajuns Volleyball obtained a transformational facility renovation, making Earl K. Long Gymnasium one of the premier Volleyball-only facilities in the country! Under second-year head coach Kristi Gray, Louisiana Volleyball made its first-ever postseason appearance as the team earned a berth in the National Invitational Volleyball Championship. The game-day atmosphere and team's high-energy style of play attracted a single-season program attendance record of 6,446.

Soccer's Ruthny Mathurin repeated as an All-Sun Belt Conference performer as she earned second team honors this season, leading the Cajuns in goals scored and points. Coach Chris McBride made positive strides in his first season at the helm and I am very excited about what he and his staff have in store for the program moving forward.

Men's golf capped off its fall slate with a record-breaking performance as Coach Theo Sliman's squad shot a school-record round of 17-under par in the final round of play at the Ka'anapali Classic Collegiate Invitational. The Cajuns finished in a four-way tie for fourth and recorded a 54-hole school-record score of 830.

Administratively, I am very excited about the addition of two key staff members we were able to recruit in the fall. Evan Roberts, Associate Director of Athletics for Communications and Digital Strategy, came to us from Texas A&M University, and Trey Frazier, Deputy Director of Athletics/Executive Director of the Ragin' Cajuns Athletic Foundation, joined us most recently from the University of Missouri. Seasoned sport leaders, Evan and Trey will provide quality executive level leadership within our Department of Athletics.

And certainly, as we announced yesterday, progress continues toward completing the design of and financing structure for construction to Our Lady of Lourdes Stadium. The construction phase of the project is anticipated to begin no earlier than the conclusion of the 2023 football season and is expected to take 18 – 24 months to complete. We look forward to sharing updates with you this year as appropriate!

As we embark on 2023, I remain grateful for the support of Cajun Nation. The landscape of our industry continues to evolve, and I look forward to working with all of our constituents as we pursue even greater accomplishments for Louisiana Athletics. On behalf of our coaches, staff, and student-athletes, THANK YOU for all you do for the Ragin' Cajuns and our amazing Carnegie R1 University!

Let's Geaux,
Bryan Maggard, Ph.D.
Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics

University of Louisiana at Lafayette Athletics

2022 Louisiana Athletics Year-In-Review

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