July 2, 2009

A sport-by-sport breakdown of the 2008-2009 Sun Devil athletic season

Check out some of the interesting numbers from the 2008-2009 athletic season at ASU, with additions to come throughout the month...

1 The Sun Devil Volleyball program hosted the first Arizona Collegiate Sand Volleyball Tournament in April at the Victory Lane Sports Complex.

2 A pair of former Arizona State soccer players were selected in the 2009 inaugural Women's Professional Soccer Draft. Stacey Tullock, regarded as the most decorated player in Sun Devil soccer history, was picked by the Chiacgo Red Stars with the 30th pick, while Alissa Oldenkamp, class of 2008, was taken by the FC Gold Pride with the 59th selection. A former member of the U.S. National Team and U-21 National Team, Tullock was named an All-American in each of her four seasons with the Sun Devils. She remains the only player in ASU history to earn First Team All-Pac-10 honors four times. Oldenkamp culminated her ASU career with a First-Team All-Pac-10 selection and received Pac-10 All-Academic accolades three times.

3 ASU Baseball has taken home the last three Pac-10 Championships under head coach Pat Murphy.

3 Jason Kipnis, Mike Leake and Pat Murphy were selected as Pac-10 Player of the Year, Pitcher of the Year and Coach of the Year respectively.

4 Four Sun Devil student-athletes were named consensus Academic All-Americans, including Mike Leake (baseball), Azahara Munoz (women's golf) and Kaitlin Cochran and Jessica Mapes (softball).

4 Four Wrestlers had ties to the Arizona State program who competed at the USA Wrestling World Team Trials. Former Sun Devil Danny Felix won the 55kg freestyle division, earning a spot on Team USA.

4 The softball team has made four consecutive College World Series appearances, the longest streak in program history, under fourth-year head coach Clint Myers.

5 Sun Devil women's gymnastics finished fifth in the NCAA Regional in Arkansas earlier in the year, their 28th consecutive NCAA Regional berth.

6 With women's coach Melissa Luellen winning the 2009 NCAA golf title and Dorsey Tierney-Walker taking over the swimming program, ASU now has six coaches who have won national titles. Tierney-Walker won two national titles at Auburn as the co-head women's coach in 2006 and 2007. ASU also has Dennis Erickson (national titles with Miami in 1989 and 1991), Randy Lein (men's golf title with ASU in 1996), Clint Myers (softball world series title in 2008) and track coach Greg Kraft (women's indoor in 2007 and 2008 and outdoor in 2007 and men's indoor in 2008), who has four Sun Devil national titles to his credit.

6 ASU hosted six NCAA postseason events hosted this past year, including a men's basketball regional (at University of Phoenix Stadium), women's golf regional, softball regional, softball super regional, baseball regional and baseball super regional.

7 The women's golf team won their seventh national championship this last May in Maryland.

8 The women's basketball team advanced to the Elite Eight in the NCAA Tournament for the second time in three seasons.

8 Sun Devil women's cross country teams rank eighth for consecutive trips made to the NCAA Cross Country Championships (ASU has appeared 11 straight times).

10 Ten Sun Devils were drafted by the three major professional leagues. Righthander Mike Leake, the eighth overall pick by the Cincinnati Reds, and centerfielder Jason Kipnis, taken in the second round by the Cleveland Indians, were among six baseball players taken in the 2009 MLB draft. The NFL selected Paul Fanaika and Troy Nolan in the seventh round of the '09 draft, while four-year starting forward Jeff Pendergraph and guard James Harden, who went No. 3 to the Oklahoma City Thunder, were picked up in the 2009 NBA draft.

10 Sophomore Anthony Robles became the 10th Sun Devil to earn Pac-10 wrestler of the year honors, winning his first Pac-10 title and garnering All-American honors this past season.

10 Ten members of the ASU women's soccer team named to the Pac-10 All-Academic Team, including three first-team members - junior Liz Harkin, sophomore Alexandra Elston and redshirt freshman Erica Long - and one second-team member - sophomore Karin Volpe.

11 Just short of a dozen members of the ASU men and women's cross country teams earned Academic All-Pac-10 honors in fall of 208.

12 A dozen ASU teams finished ranked in the top-25 nationally.

13 Jersey number of James Harden, the third pick in the NBA draft, 2008-09 Pac-10 Player of the Year and the only first team All-American in school history.

17 All but four of the 21 sports at ASU advanced to NCAA Championship play.

19 Men's basketball finished the season ranked 19th in both the AP and ESPN/ USA Today Coaches' Poll, marking the first time in school history that ASU stayed ranked in the top 25 all season long.

22 Jersey number worn by Don Wakamatsu, current manager of the Seattle Mariners and 1985 graduate of Arizona State. The former major league catcher has posted a winning record with the Mariners through 90 games this season and recently served as a coach in the 2009 MLB All-Star Game in St. Louis.

30 John Spini, the longest-tenured head coach at Arizona State, is entering his 30th season as the head coach of the ASU gymnastics team. While at the helm, Spini has posted a 317-129-2 win-loss record and led his team to the NCAA Championships 20 times. The Phoenix, Ariz., native has coached 26 All-Americans, including six national champions, and guided the Sun Devils to Regional Championship victories in 1983, 1987 and 2006.

40 ASU Baseball played 40 home contests and also hosted three other NCAA tournament games and three more regular season tournament games. There were 18 different teams who played at Packard (Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Missouri, Oregon State, Northern Illinois, Holy Cross, Cal State Fullerton, Arizona, Washington State, Stanford, Hawaii, San Diego, Winthrop, Oregon, UCLA, Kent State, Cal Poly, Oral Roberts and Clemson).

77 number of Arizona State student-athletes who graduated in either December or May of the 2008-09 school year.

82 Number of consecutive weeks that the women's cross country team has appeared in the Cross Country Coaches Association top-25 poll, dating back to Oct. 12, 1998.

125 Weight that Anthony Robles, who is the lightest Sun Devil to garner All-American honors, wrestled at this past season.

300 This past season, Addison McGrath became the first Sun Devil Water Polo player to reach the 300-point mark for her career. The three-time All-American graduated from ASU as the school's all-time leader in points (348), goals (237) and multiple-goal games (66).

538 Briann January finished her basketball career at ASU as the school's all-time leader in assists with 538. The former Sun Devil guard also ranks at the top of the university's list in free throw percentage (.830) and is second in steals (265) and free throws (401). She recently became just the fifth Sun Devil ever to be drafted into the WNBA after the Indiana Fever selected her with the sixth overall pick in this year's draft.