May 29, 2008
DAVIS, Calif. - Water polo players Mike McGee and Lindsay Kiyama, basketball's Jessica Campbell and baseball's Jake Jefferies garnered the UC Davis athletics department's top annual awards, it was announced recently. All four student-athletes, plus two team academic award recipients, will be honored at the Cal Aggie Athletics Hall of Fame and Student-Athlete Awards Banquet at Freeborn Hall Saturday.
Kiyama, a junior biochemistry and molecular biology major, captured the William P. Lindley Award as the school's outstanding scholar-athlete for 2007-08. The attacker from Concord, Calif., scored 38 goals with a team-high 54 steals to lead the Aggie women's water polo team to a school-record 27 wins. UC Davis went on to post a top-four finish at the NCAA Championship, where Kiyama picked up second-team all-tournament honors. In the classroom, Kiyama sports a 3.75 cumulative grade-point average, earning numerous academic accolades, including the department's Alfred Hoefer Memorial Scholarship. She also volunteers in the community, most recently at Progress Ranch, which offers residential treatment services for emotionally troubled youth.
Campbell, a senior from San Marcos, Calif., earned the Hubert Heitman Award as the outstanding female athlete of the year. After redshirting the 2006-07 season, the 5-foot-11 wing came back strong as a senior, earning All-Big West Conference first-team honors while ranking among the national leaders in free-throw and field-goal percentages. Campbell, who finished second in the Big West Conference at 15.3 points per game, completed her career as the No. 3 all-time scorer in UC Davis history with 1,413 points.
McGee and Jefferies shared the Colby E. "Babe" Slater Award as the university's top male athlete of the year. McGee, a goalkeeper from San Anselmo, Calif., ranked second nationally with a school-record 330 goals while leading UC Davis with 51 steals. As a result, the Aggies won a program-record 22 games, finished with a perfect 14-0 record in the regular-season Western Water Polo Association standings, and advanced to the conference title game. For his part, McGee was selected as the WWPA Player of the Year and made the All-America third team by the Association of Collegiate Water Polo Coaches.
Jefferies recently claimed Louisville Slugger All-America third-team distinction, just two days after being named as the Big West Conference Co-Player of the Year. The junior catcher from Merced, Calif., ranks among the league leaders with a .396 batting average, 93 hits, 20 doubles, 127 total bases and 54 RBIs. A semifinalist for both the Johnny Bench Award (national catcher of the year) and Golden Spikes Award (national player of the year), Jefferies has helped lead UC Davis to an NCAA postseason berth in its first year of Division I membership. The Aggies begin play against host Stanford at the Palo Alto Regional on Friday.
In addition to the individual honors, three teams will be honored for their academic prowess. The women's volleyball team picked up the Marya Welch Team Academic Award for the third time in four years, while the men's tennis and men's water polo programs tied for the Lysle Leach Team Academic Award. This is the sixth such award for tennis and second consecutive for water polo. Both the Welch and Leach awards are presented annually to the teams with highest mean grade-point average during the most recent spring, fall and winter quarters.
The student-athlete and team GPA award presentations will precede the induction ceremonies for the Cal Aggie Athletics Hall of Fame during Saturday's banquet. Steve Adelman (track and field), J.T. O'Sullivan (football), Ericka Ruelas (gymnastics), Jennifer Swanson (track and field), Shyamala White (softball) and Dr. Keith Williams (athletics director) have each earned induction into the CAAHOF for the 2007-08 year.
UC Davis completed its first official year as an NCAA Division I member after a four-year reclassification process from D-II status.
