Â鶹ÊÓƵ

Here’s something you may not have known: A worker riding a sanding machine on the hardwood floor of a gymnasium can reach speeds of up to 10 miles per hour, yet removing the paint from a basketball court still takes about two weeks. Such is the schedule for a father-and-son team that started work Tuesday on the floor of Alumni Gym as part of renovations to the home of the Â鶹ÊÓƵ Phoenix basketball and volleyball teams.

Â鶹ÊÓƵ's baseball team is among three Southern Conference teams named to the field of 64 for the 2010 NCAA Division I Baseball Championship. The Phoenix (38-22) will play its first round game against Alabama (37-22) in the Atlanta regional at 3 p.m., Friday, June 4. The other teams in the double elimination Atlanta regional are Mercer University (37-22) and Georgia Tech (45-13).

It just didn’t seem right that Ashlee Crewe had to forfeit her college graduation to join teammates in Georgia this weekend for the NCAA softball tournament. So in front of family and friends, Crewe received her diploma Wednesday evening from Â鶹ÊÓƵ President Leo M. Lambert in a ceremony honoring the only senior on the Southern Conference championship team.

The Phoenix overcame a 2-1 deficit with five runs in the top of the seventh inning to defeat UNC-Greensboro and capture its first Southern Conference tournament title, 6-3, in Chattanooga, Tenn., on Friday, May 14. Â鶹ÊÓƵ will face the host University of Georgia Bulldogs in the Athens Regional of the 2010 NCAA Softball Tourament on Friday, May 21.

A news story in the Times-News of Burlington, N.C., reports that former Â鶹ÊÓƵ baseball player Chase Austin could start his first full year in professional baseball with the Greensboro Grasshoppers.

Ali Ford of the Phoenix women’s basketball team was named the Southern Conference Freshman of the Year by both the Southern Conference Sports Media Association and the 11 head coaches. Ford became the second straight Â鶹ÊÓƵ player to receive the award, after Tiara Gause picked up the honor last season. Ford was also the only underclassman named to the coaches’ All-Southern Conference team.

Supporters of the Phoenix Club and Â鶹ÊÓƵ athletics arrived early, stayed late and helped raise more than $87,000 for student-athlete scholarships - an event record - at the third-annual Night of the Phoenix benefit on Friday, Feb. 19. The sold-out crowd enjoyed a social hour and dinner, a silent auction, presentations from Director of Athletics Dave Blank and several student-athletes, and entertainment from magician and motivational speaker Giovanni Livera in Alumni Gym.