49ers women to play in WNIT

Charlotte's women's basketball team will play in next season's Preseason WNIT. The 49ers, who played in last season's WNIT (where they lost in the second round) will be joined in the 16-team tournament by Austin Peay, Central Florida, DePaul, Florida, Hampton, Iona, James Madison, Lamar, Missouri State, Purdue, South Dakota State, St. Francis, Toledo, Utah Valley and Valparaiso.
The 49ers are guaranteed at least three games in the tournament, which begins Nov. 12. -- David Scott

3 49ers make all-Atlantic 10 baseball

Charlotte outfielder Justin Wilson, second baseman Corey Shaylor and pitcher Patrick Lawson have been named to the Atlantic 10's all-conference first team.

Wilson, a junior from Canton, is hitting .372 with 35 RBIS; Shaylor, a junior who played at Independence High, is batting .401 with three homers and 45 RBIS; Lawson, a senior from Hilton Head, S.C., is 3-0 with a .66 ERA.

49ers catcher Zane Williams made honorable mention and shortstop Justin Roland (East Rowan) and pitcher Corey Roberts (Olympic High) both made the all-rookie team. First baseman Ryan Rivers and outfielder Cory Tilton were named to the academic all-conference team.

George Washington shortstop Tom Zebroski is the league's player of the year and student-athlete of the year; Rhode Island's Tim Boyce is the pitcher of the year; Saint Louis's Alex Alemann is the rookie of the year; and La Salle's Mike Lake is the coach of the year.

The top-seeded 49ers open play in the A-10 baseball tournament Thursday against the winner of Wednesday's game between Fordham and Saint Louis.

-- 49ers men's soccer coach Jeremy Gunn signed a three-year contract extension earlier this week. Gunn guided Charlotte to a berth in the NCAA tournament last season. -- David Scott

49ers golf missed cut for NCAA Championship

Senior Corey Nagy had three birdies over a four-hole stretch on his back nine, and sophomore Olafur Loftsson had four birdies on the back nine, including the closing two holes, as the Charlotte 49ers finished tied for sixth Saturday at the NCAA East Regional at the Course at Yale.

• FULL STORY

Charlotte tied for 6th in NCAA East Regional

NEW HAVEN, CONN. - Sophomore Olafur Loftsson shot a 2-under-par 68 as Charlotte climbed into a tie for sixth place after two rounds of the NCAA East Regional at the par 70 Course at Yale.

The 49ers are tied with UNC Wilmington and East Tennessee State, one stroke behind fifth-place Virginia.

The top five teams will advance to the NCAA Championship, June 1-6 in Chattanooga, Tenn.

Loftsson led the 49ers to a 1-over 281 in the second round. Charlotte has a two-round score of 6-over 566.

Texas and Kent State share the second-round lead at five-under par.

-- Observer News Services

Richmond evens A-10 series with Charlotte 49ers

Richmond (24-27, 10-16) scored four runs to take the lead in the bottom of the fourth in the Spiders’ 6-4 Atlantic 10 baseball victory to even the conference series at 1.

Charlotte (36-15, 19-7) got four hits from former North Mecklenburg High star Shane Brown.

-- Staff reports

49ers sign another point guard for 2010-11

New Charlotte 49ers men's basketball coach Alan Major hasn't wasted any time bringing in new players.

Officially on the job just over a month, Major signed his second recruit on Wednesday - 6-foot-4, 195-pound point guard Luka Voncina from Ljubljana, Slovenia.

Voncina, who played club ball for Union Olimpija and averaged 14.4 points and 5.4 assists primarily as a point guard, picked Charlotte over Virginia Tech.

"Luka will give us added depth at the guard spot and brings a terrific basketball IQ as a player," said Major. “His basketball experience in Europe gives his game a maturity above his age."

Union Olimpija won the junior National Championship this year and Voncina is also playing for the senior team, which competes in Euroleague.

"I heard great things about coach Major and players he coached before. I see a great opportunity for me to become a better player and help the team get to a NCAA Tournament," Voncina said.

Voncina joins DeMario Mayfield, a transfer from Georgia, in Major’s first class. Mayfield, a 6-5 guard, must sit out the 2010-11 season and has three years of eligibility remaining.

Baseball claims share of Atlantic 10 title

The Charlotte 49ers clinched at least a share of the Atlantic 10 Conference regular season baseball title in a 5-0 shutout of visiting Saint Louis in a rain-shortened game Sunday to sweep the weekend series at Hayes Stadium.

It was Charlotte's second shutout of the season, second in the last five home games, and the 49ers tied the school record with 29 home wins in a season. Charlotte is now 35-13, 18-6 in conference play. The 49ers have four games remaining - a nonconference game Tuesday at North Carolina and a three-game series next weekend at A-10 rival Richmond.

Coupled with a loss by Rhode Island on Sunday, Charlotte holds a three-game lead over URI and Xavier with three games remaining in the regular season. One Charlotte win or a loss by the Rams and Musketeers each gives Charlotte an outright conference title, the top seed and a first-round bye in the league's tournament in two weeks.

49ers baseball rallies to top Saint Louis

The Charlotte 49ers baseball team came from behind for the 21st time this season in an 11-7 win Friday night against visiting Saint Louis (26-24, 12-10 Atlantic 10).

Former Olympic High pitcher Corey Roberts (5-2) earned the victory.

Former Independence High star Corey Shaylor had three hits for the 49ers (33-13, 16-6), including an inside-the-park home run.

-- Staff reports

Q&A with Charlotte 49ers coach Alan Major

The Observer is running a story on Saturday looking at coach Alan Major's first month on the job as head of the Charlotte 49ers program. Here is a Q&A with Major on a variety of issues.

Q: The team went almost a month with no one on staff aside from (director of basketball operations) Rob Perron. How did you think they handle the transition period?

Major: I think an unbelievable amount of credit goes to Rob Perron. For more than a three week period, I think what he did was phenomenal and I don't even know what all he did. I haven't been in that position before where I was the only guy around and had to probably field a boatload of calls. I can't imagine. Then checking the kids academically and then managing kids' emotions. He deserves a medal for it. He's the guys kids were coming to during that period - a guy who was frustrated or just need to vent. Change never makes full sense to kids because they develop attachments. Rob understood because he was here and as a result it was a no-brainer to keep him because of his dedication and commitment to this program.

Q: What will Alan Major-type basketball look like next season?

Major: We're still putting that together. I think we'll be a team very committed to the defensive end. We want to develop an identity on the defensive end and want to build that mentality that we are a team that is tough to score against. That type of helping, and toughness and unselfishness on defense often times spills over to the offensive end. We'd love to score off our defense as much as we can. Then on the offensive end I hope we can have a team that has an inside-out mentality. I think we can have a base of being able to throw the ball inside.

Q: Do you have objectives recruiting-wise that you hope to address for next season?

Major: We're looking at that. It's tricky because timing-wise we came in April 12 and the recruiting period started on Friday the 16th. It ended on Wednesday, April 21. It was during those days when you could do off-campus recruiting. That Friday-Sunday major AAU events were held that we are prohibited from going to in the spring. So basically you had to catch kids on Friday morning or on that Monday when they got back to school. It looked like six days but it wasn't really. In addition to trying to bolster the roster for next year we're also trying to knock down doors in the 2011 class and rising seniors. Kids have been pretty good, they understand there has been a coaching change. We're just trying to knock some doors down and be ready for the month of July.

Q: Give us a run down on your three selections as assistant coaches (Ryan Odom, Orlando Vandross and Desmond Oliver).

Major: Outside of the basketball part, all three guys have one thing in common - they are great husbands and they are great fathers. I know those guys and the way they treat their families, that is going to spill over into this office and the way they treat our guys. I've known Orlando the longest. I met him back in 1998 at the Final Four. Orlando is a phenomenal friend. Recruiting-wide he has a tremendous grip in the Northeast, which is advantageous to us. I also know that being that long at one place (Boston University), he has had opportunities to go and he showed tremendous loyalty. I don't know how many times you hear of assistants these days being any place longer than three or four years. We will never have to have a conversation about academics being important because he was at he was at a big-time academic institution.

Desmond was at Rhode Island back when I was at Xavier so we actually got to coach against each other. He knows the league and knows a lot of the programs. He was also at Georgia for four years and has a great feel for the Southeast. We've already tapped into that with DeMario (Mayfield, who is transferring from Georgia).

Ryan I've known in the last year or so. He has an unbelievable pedigree with his dad (Dave Odom) and was at Virginia Tech for seven years and there again, there is that loyalty. He has a great of the Carolinas and Virginia with recruiting. We hope that we have a pretty good balance. We would love our base to be Charlotte but we felt we needed some arms to reach out to some other areas.

Q: Any progress on next season's non-conference schedule?

Major: We're getting there. That was one of the many things we had to address. Between myself and working with Rob Perron a little bit, we've been making some calls. We have time on our side and we're not in a mad scramble mode, yet. We got about two or three more games to go. The game against Tennessee is in place and I believe it's in December at Bobcats Arena. A game like that is a way to kind of pick the campus up and show it off someplace else.

49ers getting Georgia transfer

DeMario Mayfield, a 6-5 combo guard, is transferring to the Charlotte 49ers from Georgia, the school announced Tuesday.

Mayfield asked for his release from the Bulldogs recently. He visited Charlotte's campus two weekends ago.

Mayfield will sit on the 2010-11 season in accordance to NCAA rules. He will have three years of eligibility left.

Mayfield, from Carnersville, Ga., was named the Class AAA Georgia Player of the Year in 2009 at Franklin County High by the Georgia Sportswriter Association. As a high school senior, he averaged 23.9 points, 5.1 rebounds and 6.7 assists per game.

Mayfield asked for and received his release from Georgia in March. Mayfield played in 18 of 31 games this past season and only 6 of 18 SEC league games.

"I'm looking forward to bringing a lot of excitement to Charlotte with my hard work," said Mayfield in a statement. "I'm going to give Charlotte my all. I want to come in and just work and build my way back to earning more playing time. The coaching staff made me feel like I was already part of the team. As a group, they just made me feel welcome."

Mayfield is the first player signed by new 49ers coach Alan Major.

"We're extremely excited to DeMario join the 49ers basketball family," Major said. "He gives us good size and skill at the wing position. With a year to sit out, he'll have a chance to expand his game and then have three years remaining." -- David Scott

49ers golf seeded eighth in NCAA regional

The Charlotte 49ers, who received an automatic NCAA bid as the Atlantic 10 champions, are seeded eighth in their region, which will be played May 20-22 in New Haven, Conn. , and hosted by Yale.

The 49ers will contend for one of the five advancing spots against UCLA, Texas, South Carolina, Virginia, Alabama, East Tennessee State, Southeastern Louisiana, Kent State, Vanderbilt, Penn State, UNC Wilmington, Columbia and Lafayette.

The 49ers are making their sixth straight NCAA Tournament appearance and have advanced to the finals in three of the previous five outings (20076, 2007, 2008). Charlotte posted back-to-back top 10 NCAA finishes in 2007 (tied for third) and 2008 (tied for eighth).

Charlotte is led by three-time all-America Corey Nagy, who has won three individual titles this year - including the 2010 A-10 Championship, and sophomore Olafur Loftsson, who won the 2009 NCAA Div. III individual championship last year at Oglethorpe. Nagy has advanced to the NCAA finals in each of his three years with the 49ers.

The NCAA Golf Championship is June 1-6 at The Honors Course in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Nagy is A-10 men's golf student-athlete of year

Charlotte 49ers senior standout Corey Nagy has been named the Atlantic 10 Men's Golf Student-Athlete of the Year for the second straight season.

A three-time honorable mention all-America, Nagy won his second consecutive A-10 individual title at the 2010 A-10 Championships. In addition, the 2009 ESPN the Magazine second team Academic all-America owns a 3.55 GPA as a psychology major and is ranked 18th in the latest Golfweek/Sagarin Performance Index and 21st in the latest Golfstat rankings.

Nagy was joined on the A-10 all-Academic team by junior teammate Will Golden. Golden, who placed ninth at the A-10 championships, owns a career-best 74.62 stroke average. Golden boasts a 3.47 GPA as a business marketing major.

Charlotte won its fifth straight A-10 Championship and will compete in its sixth straight NCAA Tournament. Nagy finished four-under par at the 54-hole A-10 Championship to become just the fifth player in league history to win consecutive A-10 individual titles and first since Xavier's Steve Dixon (1998-99).

Within the last month, Nagy has been named to the eight-member US Palmer Cup team and named one of six finalists for the Byron Nelson Award, which goes to a graduating senior and considers each nominee's entire collegiate academic and golf career and his character and integrity while in college.

This season, Nagy owns a school-record 70.84 stroke average that includes three individual titles and seven top five finishes in the 49ers' 11 events. Nagy also holds the 49ers' career record with a 72.03 stroke average.

Charlotte 49ers softball earns No. 3 seed

The Charlotte 49ers softball team earned the No. 3 seed in the 2010 Atlantic 10 Tournament this week in Amherst, Mass. The 49ers will face Rhode Island, who they swept earlier in the season, on Wednesday at 3 p.m. Charlotte ended the regular season with a 38-16 record and a 15-5 mark in A-10 play.

UMass earned its 22nd regular season title and the top seed in the tournament. UMass highlights the six-team field and is joined by No. 2 Fordham, No. 3 Charlotte, No. 4 Saint Joseph's, No. 5 Saint Louis and No. 6 Rhode Island.

The 20th-ranked Minutemen (38-7-1) posted an unbeaten 15-0-1 Atlantic 10 record and enter the championship riding a nation's-best 24-game winning streak. They are looking for their 22nd tournament title and sixth straight.

Fordham (45-8, 16-2) is make its eight-straight tournament appearance and seeks its first title.

Nagy named Byron Nelson Award finalist

The Golf Coaches Association of America (GCAA) announced Charlotte senior standout golfer Corey Nagy is among the six finalists for the 2010 Byron Nelson Award. The Nelson Award finalists are Nagy, Seth Fair of Indianapolis, Wake Forest's Brendan Gielow, Adam Long of Duke, Jack Newman of Michigan State and Air Force's Tom Whitney.

Candidates for the Nelson Award must be a graduating senior and the selection committee considers equally a nominee's entire collegiate academic and golf career and his character and integrity while in college. Particular consideration will be given to a nominee's good citizenship, as portrayed by Mr. Byron Nelson over the course of his life and golf career.
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"Being recognized for this award speaks to Corey's character and integrity," said 49ers head coach Adam Pry. "I cannot think of anyone I know who embodies what this award stands for more than Corey.

"He is a true gentlemen in every sense of the word and represents everything that is great about college golf."

Pilkington named A-10 co-pitcher of the week

Charlotte 49ers sophomore Tyler Pilkington was named the Atlantic 10 Conference Co-Pitcher of Week.

On Saturday, the left-hander tossed eight scoreless innings en route to Charlotte's first shutout win of 2010, a 23-0 win over Temple in Atlantic 10 Conference play. Pilkington scattered five hits and a walk in his 93-pitch outing, striking out a season-high six batters.

Charlotte has two shutouts in the past three seasons, with Pilkington getting the win as the starter in both of them. He is the only pitcher to toss eight innings this season, lasting that long twice in conference starts.

The Waxhaw, N.C. native is second on the team with 51.1 innings pitched, is tied for the team lead with four wins, and is 3-1 in six conference starts. The product of Weddington High is sixth in A-10 games with a .240 opponents batting average against.

Charlotte, Nagy win another A-10 golf title

Senior Corey Nagy captured the Atlantic 10 individual title for the second consecutive year in leading Charlotte to its league record-tying fifth-straight men's golf championship on Sunday. The 49ers have won the A-10 title in each of the five years since joining the conference.

The 49ers finished 11-over par for the 54-hole competition to win by 18 strokes over second-place Richmond. Charlotte joins Penn State (1986-91) as the only programs in A-10 history to win five consecutive golf titles. Charlotte had the lowest round on each of the three days.

"Winning when you're supposed to win is never easy and not something you take for granted. The guys did a really good job in their approach," said Charlotte coach Adam Pry. "I'm really proud of Corey and it's a great way to end for him. Certainly well-earned."

Nagy picked up his second straight A-10 individual title and his third individual title of the season. The three-time all-America also won the VCU Shootout and the Irish Creek Collegiate this season. In 11 events, he posted seven top five finishes.

With the win at the A-10 Championship, the 49ers earn an automatic bid to their school-record sixth straight NCAA Tournament. Six NCAA Regionals will be played May 20-22 at six different sites. The NCAA Championships will be held June 1-6 in Chattanooga, Tenn.

Georgia transfer visiting 49ers this weekend

Georgia freshman guard DeMario Mayfield is visiting the Charlotte 49ers this weekend as he considers where he will transfer for the remainder of his college career, sources told the Observer.

Mayfield, from Carnersville, Ga., is a 6-foot-4, 190-pound combo guard who was named the Class AAA Georgia Player of the Year in 2009 at Franklin County High by the Georgia Sportswriter Association. As a high school senior, he averaged 23.9 points, 5.1 rebounds and 6.7 assists per game.

Mayfield asked for and received his release from Georgia in March. Mayfield played in 18 of 31 games this past season and only 6 of 18 SEC league games.

For more information on Mayfield, go here.