While players went home and took a break from competition over the summer, GW sports still generated plenty of buzz. Here are the top stories you may have missed.
Atlantic 10
The conference unveiled a new logo June 30 and welcomed newly incorporated conference member Davidson, which officially joined July 1, expanding the A-10 to 14 teams.
Baseball
After spending the past three seasons at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, Joe Tatum will join the team as a volunteer assistant coach. Head coach Gregg Ritchie also brought on former Binghamton assistant coach Dustin Johnson to serve as the team’s pitching coach.
GW will host the 2015 A-10 Championship at Barcroft Park from May 20 to 23. It’s the first time in program history the Colonials will host the annual conference tournament.
Rowing
GW alumnus Trofym Anderson won a gold medal as a member of Canada’s Men’s Coxed Four boat at the World Rowing Under 23 Championships. Also competing was junior Jordan Tewksbury-Volpe, who finished in seventh place with the United States’ Lightweight Four boat.
Gymnastics
For the second time in program history and the first time since 2011, the gymnastics team will host the East Atlantic Gymnastics League Championship. The event is scheduled for March 21 at the Smith Center.
Lacrosse
Women’s lacrosse head coach Tara Hannaford announced earlier this month that she would leave the team after seven years. The four-year letter winner at the College of William & Mary posted a 47-69 record during her time at GW and coached the Colonials to three A-10 Championship appearances. Hannaford said she wanted to leave the staff to spend more time with family. She will depart after a 7-9 record last season, when the team missed the playoffs after two consecutive postseason appearances.
For the second time in program history, the Colonials will host the A-10 Championship on the Mount Vernon Campus from May 1 to 3. GW last hosted the championship in 2006.
Men’s basketball
GW released the team’s out-of-conference schedule this month. Notable matches include games against last year’s Atlantic Coast Conference champion Virginia on Nov. 21, Seton Hall on Nov. 29, Charlotte on Dec. 7 in the BB&T Classic and Penn State on Dec. 14. The Colonials will open their season in an exhibition game against Bloomsburg (Division ll) on Nov. 2.
The Colonials will open play at the Diamond Head Classic against Ohio University on Dec. 22 in Honolulu, Hawaii. Along with the Bobcats, GW sits in a bracket with Colorado and DePaul. Late-round play could include a matchup against Nebraska, Loyola Marymount, Hawaii or Wichita State.
Former Wake Forest forward Tyler Cavanaugh transferred to GW in early July after his availability set many mid-majors abuzz. A true stretch four with good three-point range, Cavanaugh averaged 8.8 points and 3.8 rebounds per game during his sophomore season at Wake Forest. Cavanaugh also visited Dayton and Butler before choosing GW, and drew interest from Colorado, Davidson, Providence and Oregon. He will have to sit out the 2014-15 season per NCAA transfer guidelines, but will have two years of eligibility remaining once he can play.
Softball
Softball head coach Stacey Schramm has added a former collegiate athlete with postseason experience to her coaching staff. Laura Trout will join the team as an assistant coach after spending the past two seasons at South Carolina as a volunteer assistant coach.
Water Polo
GW named former MIT head coach Adam Foley assistant coach for both men’s and women’s water polo earlier this month. Foley comes to GW after a year as assistant coach for Johns Hopkins, which posted a 21-10 record. He also has two years of experience as technical director of water polo development and was head coach of the senior and junior national teams in Trinidad and Tobago. From 2007-11, Foley coached MIT to a 48-55 record and two CWPA Division III Eastern Championship titles in 2007 and 2010.
Women’s basketball
The women’s basketball team traveled internationally for the first time since 2001, heading to Europe earlier this month. The team picked up an 83-63 win against English team Barking Abbey after sightseeing in London. The women will return from Monaco on Aug. 23 after stops in Paris and Marseille.
Former Drexel assistant coach Melissa Dunne will join the Colonials as an assistant to head coach Jonathan Tsipis. Dunne, a four-year point guard in the A-10 at Temple, will replace former associate head coach and recruiting coordinator Megan Duffy, who departed for the University of Michigan. A strong recruiter and point guard developer, Dunne will work with members of the A-10’s top-ranked recruiting class, including Mia Farmer, Camila Tapias and Brianna Cummings, as well as returning guards Chakecia Miller and Hannah Schaible.
GW will travel to the Bahamas for the Junkanoo Jam in November. The team opens play against NC State on Nov. 28 and will face either Texas Tech or Purdue in the following game of the two-round tournament.
Cross country and track
The University’s combination cross country and track team announced a dozen recruits in mid-July and released the fall schedule of cross-country races. The recruiting class of six men and six women includes 800 standout Carter Day, who qualified for the International Association of Athletics Federations World Youth Track & Field Championship earlier this summer, and Dartmouth transfer Hannah Rowe, who placed third in the 10,000-meter race for the Big Green at the Eastern College Athletic Conference Championship Meet in 2013, the same year the team won the Ivy League Championship.
Cross country will run four races this fall leading up to the A-10 Championships, and track will begin its first season after reinstatement in the winter as GW’s 27th varsity sport.
The Smith Center
The Washington Kastles, a professional tennis team, adopted the Smith Center as their home this summer, hosting matches on campus during July. The likes of Billie Jean King, Michelle Obama, Venus Williams and Sloane Stephens paid visits to GW to watch or compete as the Kastles made their way to a fourth-consecutive World Team Tennis Championship title.
