Hustle Points: 4/19

Knights honor athletes at Black & Gold Gala

The UCF Athletics department celebrated the 2011-2012 athletic school year Monday night at the UCF Arena at its annual Black & Gold Gala.

Throughout the night, student-athletes were honored with a variety of awards, rewarding achievements on and off the field, as well as other members of the athletics department team.

Track & field’s Octavious Freeman was named Freshman of the Year, the volleyball and men’s tennis teams were commended for having the highest team GPAs and the Knights Challenge Award, which marks community involvement, was given to the softball team. Individual awards were also handed out for the respective programs.

Knights kickoff Conference Championship, receive NLI from Baptista

The UCF Knights women’s tennis team (9-10) will be taking on the SMU Mustangs in the first round of the Conference USA Women’s Tennis Championship in Memphis.

The Knights defeated the Mustangs earlier this season, en route to a 2-1 record in conference play.

UCF got some good news Tuesday when head coach Stephanie Nickitas announced that Sofia Baptista, from Portugal, has signed a National Letter of Intent to be a Knight in the fall. Baptista is the No. 7 player in Portugal.

“We are very excited to have Sofia join our team,” Nickitas said. “She is a very talented left-hander with a dynamic game and will be a great asset in both singles and doubles.”

Audas garners back-to-back POTW awards

Following a week in which she pitched a shutout against the No. 3 Florida Gators and made three appearances against UAB en route to a 0.65 ERA, freshman pitcher Mackenzie Audas was named the Conference USA Softball Pitcher of the Week for the second consecutive week.

Audas is only UCF’s second pitcher to earn the honor three times in one season and is the first to ever earn the honor in consecutive weeks.

No. 12 UCF heading back to Gainesville

The UCF Knights track & field program retained its No. 12 position in the national rankings, which were released Tuesday. UCF has now ranked among the top 25 for 18 straight weeks.

The Knights will be returning to Gainesville on Saturday to compete, this time in the Tom Jones Invitational. UCF competed in Gainesville two weeks ago in the Pepsi Florida Relays.

Four athletes for the Knights currently rank among the country’s best in their respective individual events and the program’s 4?100 relay is ranked No. 7, nationally.

Women’s club lacrosse nationally ranked, heading to nationals

The UCF women’s club lacrosse team (16-3) will be competing at the 2012 Women’s Collegiate Lacrosse Associates Nationals on May 9-12 in Colorado Springs, Colo.

The Knights were champions of the Southeastern Women’s Lacrosse League and will be representing the league at nationals. UCF is ranked No. 7 in the latest polls, released on Monday.

The Knights have notched victories this season over USC, USF, Miami, FSU and UF this season.