University of Mount Olive graduate student Zoe Dougherty defends against Seton Hill’s Alaina TeSelle during a women’s lacrosse game this past spring. Dougherty helped lead UMO to its third consecutive Conference Carolinas regular-season and tournament championship. (Rudy Coggins|mountolivetribune.com)
Championships in five spring sports vaulted the University of Mount Olive into a runner-up spot overall in the Joby Hawn Cup competition, which recognizes the best intercollegiate athletic program in Conference Carolinas during the 2022-23 academic year.
The Trojans secured league titles in women’s lacrosse, men’s and women’s outdoor track, baseball and women’s tennis. The baseball and women’s tennis teams each earned a trip to the NCAA Division II tournament.
Directed by head coach Heather Coppola, the women’s lacrosse team “three-peated” as the regular-season and tournament champion.
Though UMO scored the most points (174) of any team in the overall standings, it finished behind Cup champion UNC Pembroke, which tallied 154 points. The Braves The Braves won the women’s and men’s Cups, but were out-pointed in all three categories.
The conference uses “earned points” and “maximum points possible” tables to determine a percentage rating based on the number of sports sponsored by each member institution.
UMO scored a conference-best 100 points and placed second in the women’s Cup standings. On the men’s side, the Trojans scored 74 points — one-half point behind Belmont Abbey, which logged a league-high 74.5 points.
Wrestling and field hockey did not factor into the Cup standings since conference schools that sponsor both sports are paired with the South Atlantic Conference. For the first time in program history, UMO logged an unbeaten conference campaign (12-0) in women’s field hockey and finished runner-up in the season-ending tournament.
