JBU NOW
Athletics News Women’s Soccer Wins Back-to-Back Titles Women’s soccer completed an incredible 2021 calendar season. Forced to play the fall 2020 season in the spring of 2021, followed by its normally scheduled slate of matches the following fall, the Golden Eagles won back-to-back Sooner Athletic regular season and tournament titles, compiling a 32-2-1 (.929) record and consecutive appearances in the NAIA National Championships. 01 Pearson Continues Run of Records Siloam Springs native and dual-sport student-athlete Allika Pearson continues her romp through the Golden Eagle record books with another pair of All-America finishes in the 2021-22 season. After earning a second-straight All-America finish at the NAIA National Cross Country Championships, Allika then earned her first career All-America honors at the NAIA National Indoor Track and Field Championships with a
fourth-place finish in the 5,000-meter race. She has the chance to earn the “triple crown” later this spring, when she competes in the 10,000-meter race at the NAIA National Outdoor Track and Field Championships. 02 Tennis Teams Boost Win Record Mike Campbell ‘96, head men’s and women’s tennis coach, has revived the programs after a difficult 2020-21 season. The women, who finished winless last season, own a 9-7 overall record, while the men have built an 11-6 mark as the programs prepare for the NAIA Unaffiliated Group Regional Tournament. The teams’ records this season are the best the tennis programs have produced in over two decades. 03 Mendez Named NAIA AllAmerica Second Team Junior defender Aubrey Mendez, the anchor of the Golden Eagle soccer team back line that conceded just eight goals in 20 matches (0.40 goals against average), was honored with the program’s first-ever NAIA All-America second team selection. The Chino, California, native not only earned an All-America nod for the second time in as many seasons, she
01
04
6
BROWN BULLETIN
is the first defender in JBU women’s soccer history to finish among the top three All-America teams in program history. 04 Stephens Breaks Program Scoring Record Junior forward Tarrah Stephens broke a 38-year-old women’s basketball scoring record when she shot a new record of 45 points in the Golden Eagles’ overtime win at Oklahoma Panhandle State University in February. The native of Wyandotte, Oklahoma, posted an incredible stat line, shooting 18-of-27 from the field – hitting two-thirds of her shots attempted – and converting 9-of-10 free-throw opportunities to accompany 11 rebounds. 05 Volleyball Players Earn Honors After a postseason run that nearly produced the volleyball program’s first-ever appearance in the NAIA National Championships, a pair of Golden Eagles earned superlative honors from the Sooner Athletic Conference, including Taylor Goleman’s selection for the league’s Freshman of the Year and junior Jillian Blackman as the conference’s Defensive Player of the Year. Head Coach Ken Carver has now produced two of the SAC’s four most recent top freshmen,
02
03
05
