Braves’ Snitker, A’s Melvin named managers of year
Contributing Writer
First-year Wright FAIRBORN —
State women’s volleyball coach Allie Matters set ambitious goals this season, the biggest of which was qualifying for the six-team Horizon League Tournament for the first time.
Having taken over a downtrodden program that hadn’t produced a winning season since 2001, she didn’t expect an easy path.
“The highs have been so high, and the lows have been so low,” she said. “Every weekend, my assistant (Dan O’Keefe) and I thought we had it all figured out, and then someone in the confer- ence did something crazy, or we’d do something crazy. I was like, ‘We’re going to have to find out if we made it the very last second of conference play.’ And that’s exactly what happened.”
The Raiders needed to win their two matches at home last weekend and have Oakland lose twice on the road to squeak into the tourney. After beating Youngstown State in four sets Saturday for their second win in two days, the coaches and players huddled around a com- puter in the locker room to see if the Grizzlies would drop their second straight match. Anyone still in the gym could tell by the celebration that the Raiders had gotten the help they needed to claim the sixth seed.
“I walked out, and my dad was like, ‘Did you film it?’ And our administrator was saying, ‘I was trying to ‘Face- time’ you so I could see it.’ But I was just so in the moment with my team,” Matters said.
“Just the tears and the screaming and the cheers — there’s not a lot of people who can say, ‘I made history.’ And every single one of my student-athletes can say that.”
The Raiders, who are 15-13 overall and assured of a win- ning season, will play at third- seeded Northern Kentucky (19-8) at 4 p.m. today. The teams split two matches this year, each winning at home.
“From the minute I got this job, I said, ‘We’re going to live, sleep, eat and breathe that sixth spot until we got there.’ I knew what we were capable of and that I was step- ping into a lot of talent,” said Matters, who previously was an assistant at Seton Hall.
“Culturally, we had to change some things. The team had to be told they could do anything they put their mind to. It’s awesome, as a first-year coach, to accom- plish what we wanted to do in such a short time.”
Senior Alannah Lemming has been strong at the net and as a leader, but the Raiders rely mostly on underclassmen: juniors Taylor Gibson and Hannah Colvin, sophomores Celia Powers and Teddie Sauer and freshmen Jenna Story, Lainey Stephen- son and Grace Hauck.
Sauer is first in the league in aces. Stephenson is fourth in assists. And Story, a two-time conference defensive player of the week, is fifth in digs.
For this group, just mak- ing the tourney isn’t enough.
“My girls have never been there before, and they’re going to walk into that gym and say, ‘Let’s go win a Hori- zon League championship,’” Matters said.
Women’s basketball: The Raiders (1-1) have a challeng- ing home opener at 7 tonight against Belmont, which has made three straight trips to the NCAA Tournament as the Ohio Valley Conference champs.
Wright State’s leading scorer is freshman Angel Baker at 18.0 points per game, while sophomore Tyler Frierson averages 13 points and 11 rebounds.
Cross-country: The Raid- ers finished the season at the NCAA Regionals. The women were 18th among 32 teams for their best showing in the event, and three runners placed in the top 100: junior Shelby Nolan (66th), senior Aurora Turner (81st) and senior Hailey Brumfield (95th). Junior Nathan Dunn was 60th as the men finished 23rd.
Oakland’s Bob NEW YORK —
Melvin was voted Manager of the Year for the third time, winning the American League honor after lead- ing the Athletics to the playoffs despite the lowest open- ing-day payroll in the majors.
Atlanta’s Brian Snitker won the National League award for leading the Braves to a surprising first-place finish.
Melvin received 18 firstplace votes, 19 seconds and one third for 121 points from the Baseball Writers’ Asso- ciation of America in balloting announced Tuesday. He is the eighth manager to win three or more times and is one shy of the record shared by Bobby Cox and Tony La Russa. Melvin won with Oakland in 2012 and took the NL honor with Arizona in 2007.
His A’s went 97-65 after starting the season with a $68.6 million payroll. They lost to the New York Yankees in the AL wild card game.
Boston’s Alex Cora was second with seven firsts and 79 points, followed by Tampa Bay’s Kevin Cash with five firsts and 57 points.
Snitker received 17 firsts, nine seconds and one third for 116 points, the only manager picked on every NL ballot. Milwaukee’s Craig Counsell was second with 11 firsts and for 99 points. Colorado’s Bud Black was third with 41 points.
Snitker was managing at Triple-A Gwinnett when took over Atlanta in May 2016 after Fredi Gonzalez was fired for a 9-28 start. The Braves went 59-65 during the rest of the season, and Snitker was given the job full-time. Atlanta went 72-90, and then 90-72 this year, when the Braves lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers in a four-game Division Series.