The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga’s Frank Reed was voted Southern Conference softball coach of the year by his peers, and the Lady Mocs had five players earn 2010 all-conference awards.
Reed was voted coach of the year for the third consecutive season after directing the Lady Mocs to a 39-15 overall record and a 19-5 conference mark.
“I appreciate the confidence the other coaches have in me,” Reed said. “We work very hard to do the right things, and hopefully that’s what they’ve recognized — and recognize the success of our program.
“There’s a lot of good coaches in this conference, and a lot of them have made tremendous strides in making their programs better. I think that was obvious throughout the year, where we had so many close ballgames.”
UTC infielders Tiffany Baker and Tia Blosser and junior outfielder Lyndsey Stiles were selected to the All-SoCon first team, and junior pitcher Kandice Irwin was a second-team selection. This is the second time in their UTC careers that Blosser, Stiles and Baker have made the all-conference first team.
“It’s a definite confidence booster for myself,” said Stiles, a former Soddy-Daisy High School star. “I think as a team everyone is so proud of each other for the year that we’ve had.
“So now we’re very ready, and we feel good about going into the tournament this week. We’re very confident and ready to get the ball rolling.”
UTC freshman first baseman Kasey Tydingco was named to the all-freshman team. The Fairfield, Calif., resident took over at first base after junior Michelle Fuzzard underwent season-ending knee surgery.
“It is awesome and completely unexpected,” Tydingco said. “If someone would have asked me at the beginning of the year do I think I would be playing the role that I am today, of course I would say no. … It made it easier for me knowing that I just need to play my game.”
Georgia Southern swept the top-athlete honors, with senior shortstop Nina Iduate being named player of the year and classmate Brianna Streetmon repeating as pitcher of the year.
The Lady Mocs will open play in the four-team conference tournament Thursday along with Georgia Southern, Elon and UNC Greensboro. As regular-season champion, UTC will host the tournament at Jim Frost Stadium and open against UNC Greensboro at 1:30 p.m.