Photo courtesy of @CruAcroTumb on X
For the second straight year, the top DIII program in the NCATA resides in Belton, as UMHB Acrobatics & Tumbling took down Trine on Saturday morning and claimed the DIII Tournament title in Mequon, Wisconsin. The Cru emerged with a 264.025-245.665 victory over the Thunder on the campus of Concordia University-Wisconsin, living up to their No. 5 national ranking.
UMHB, who is 9-1 this season under second-year head coach Raffaela Scotto, defended their 2023 DIII invitational championship in strong fashion against the Thunder, kicking off the meet with a trio of 9s in Compulsory. The Crusaders led 94.775-87.500 at halftime, and followed that by outscoring Trine in Toss, Tumbling, and Team Event.
“We come in with a 10-out-of-10 mindset,” UMHB senior Katelyn Kolodziejczyk said following the milestone victory. “We like to use the saying, ‘Us versus Us’ because it doesn’t matter who our opponent is out there. We’re the ones trying to improve ourselves each and every day.”
UMHB’s season is anticipated to continue its season at the NCATA National Championships, with the eight-team field set to be announced on Monday. Due to the NCATA not being affiliated with the NCAA, all programs, regardless of NCAA Division status, are eligible to contend for a spot at nationals.
The 2024 NCATA National Championship will be contested April 25-28 in Fairmont, West Virginia. This would be The Cru’s first-ever appearance at nationals in the program’s five-year history.
UMHB Beach Volleyball backed up its No. 1 seed at the AVCA D-III Small College Beach Championships, emerging from pool play with a pair of dominant victories over Lynchburg and Berry on Saturday afternoon.
The Cru’s two wins in Tavares, Florida improved UMHB’s record to 24-4 overall, furthering the new program high-mark for wins in a single season. UMHB advances to the championship bracket on Sunday, and will face a familiar opponent in ETBU at 9:15 a.m. ET. A victory there would put UMHB in the finals, facing the winner of Berry and Stevenson at 1 p.m. ET.
UMHB opened Saturday’s action by sweeping Lynchburg, 3-0, and followed that up with a 3-1 victory over Berry. The pairs of Kendall Harrington/Gracie Nichols, Mindy Conger/Saige De La Fuente, and Faith Clark/Heidi Farrar each went 2-0 on the day.
For the second-straight home ASC series, UMHB Softball swept its opponent, taking down UT-Dallas in a 2-1 victory on Saturday afternoon. The Crusaders are now 8-1 in their last three series, having defeated LeTourneau, Hardin-Simmons, and UTD in consecutive order.
Eileigh Whyte delivered yet another solid performance in the circle, throwing a complete game with six hits and just one earned run allowed. She struck out five batters, with her final strikeout of the win coming on the game’s last pitch.
Whyte also went 2-for-2 at the plate, and was one of just two Crusader batters—Taylor Henken being the other—with two hits. UMHB tallied eight hits, but stranded 10 runners on base, as the Crusaders beat UTD by a score of 2-1 for the second time in the series.
Saturday was UMHB’s Strikeout Cancer Game, honoring Cru Softball alum Emily Bounds, as well all who have or are currently fighting cancer. Bounds, who played at UMHB from 2018-2019, was recognized pregame and threw out the first pitch. She is currently fighting melanoma.
UMHB baseball opened its series at UT-Dallas with an 8-1 win on Friday that saw Rhett Grosz tie the program’s single-game record for home runs, with three. It gave The Cru the right start to a key conference road series, but the Comets responded by sweeping Saturday’s doubleheader, as they took the three-game set, two games to one.
A pitcher’s duel unfolded in the first game of the day, as UTD emerged with a 1-0 victory. Zach Landry’s single in the third scored Lucas Rexin, who reached base earlier in the inning on an error, and that proved to be the deciding run. UMHB recorded just three hits and never got a runner past second-base in the seven-inning loss as UTD starter Ryan Vera allowed just three hits and struck out four in a complete-game performance.
The second game of the afternoon proved to be a contrast to the first, though with the same victor, as the Comet offense exploded with 10 hits in a 12-2 win. UTD pushed four runs across in the first inning and never looked back. While UMHB cut the deficit to 5-2 in the fourth, thanks to Carson Hagan’s steal of home and Kyle Hogwood’s RBI double, UTD answered with six runs in the fifth. Albert Garza’s RBI single down the first-base line scored Luke Finn from third and clinched the hosts’ run-rule victory in the seventh inning.
UMHB now looks ahead to its final home conference series of the season, hosting Ozarks in Belton, April 19-20. The Eagles are 14-17 overall and 8-10 in league play.
