Rick Hart (left) and Laura Mincy (center) with SoCon Commissioner John Iamarino (SoCon photo).

Courtesy: GoMocs.com

Related Links

HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. --- With five Southern Conference championships in the 2007-08 academic year, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga has claimed the 2008 Germann Cup, the SoCon office announced Thursday.

The Germann Cup (pronounced GRR – man) is presented annually to the school which produces the SoCon’s best all-around women’s sports program.

Schools earn points based upon its teams’ regular-season finishes, with bonus points going to the team which wins the conference tournament.

The Chattanooga women’s sports programs captured regular-season titles in basketball, and softball and won tournament or postseason championships in basketball, cross country and softball.

“I said when I was hired two years ago that one of our goals was to have a broad-based athletics program,” Athletics Director Rick Hart said.  “Winning this year’s Germann Cup is certainly reflective of our commitment to excellence in all sports.  It is also a testament to the quality of our coaching staff and our student-athletes.  This is a tremendous accomplishment.”

The softball team’s twin titles clinched the Cup for Chattanooga.  After claiming the regular-season crown, the Lady Mocs, under Head Coach Frank Reed, won six of seven SoCon Tournament games, including three on Championship Saturday, to win their ninth Tournament title in 15 years.

Overall, the Lady Mocs edged second-place Furman for the Cup by 4.5 points, 74.5 to 70 for Furman.  Chattanooga recorded fourth-place finishes or better in six of the nine sports in which it competes, including a tie for third place in volleyball and fourth-place finishes for both indoor and outdoor track and field.

The women’s golf team, in its first year of competition in more than 20 years, registered a fifth-place finish at the SoCon Championships with first-year Head Coach Colette Murray at the controls.

Women’s basketball has been the anchor of the Chattanooga women’s programs for nearly a decade.  The Lady Mocs, under Head Coach Wes Moore, won its ninth straight SoCon regular-season title and seventh SoCon Tournament crown in 2008.

Bill Gautier’s cross country team repeated as SoCon Champions at the league meet in October, and his track and field teams pulled out fourth-place finishes at both the indoor and outdoor SoCon meets without competing in field events.

Lisa Rhodes’ volleyball squad took third place in the regular season and reached the conference tournament semifinal match.  The soccer team, coached by J.D. Kyzer, competed with no seniors or juniors on the roster, and first-year Head Coach Jeff Clark’s women’s tennis team earned an eighth-place SoCon finish.

The Chattanooga women’s programs finished second in the Germann Cup standings to Furman for eight consecutive years from 1996-97 to 2003-04.  The Lady Mocs placed fourth, fifth and fifth respectively over the last three years.

The men’s programs, which won the Commissioner’s Cup, the men’s equivalent, in 2005, placed third in this year’s all-sports rankings.  With 68.5 points, the Mocs trailed top-finisher Appalachian State, which compiled 84 points, and Furman, 73 points.  The Chattanooga men have finished among the top three schools in the overall standings in each of the past five years.