CARLSBAD, Calif. – The Kansas State women’s golf team recorded a score of 13-over par 301 on Saturday to fall 10 spots into a tie for 17th place during the second round of the 2025 NCAA Championship held at the par-72, 6,330-yard Omni La Costa Resort & Spa.
 
K-State sits at 14-over par 590 through two rounds to sit in a tie with LSU and will need to move up at least two spots on Sunday to survive the 54-hole cut. 
 
“The conditions were tough,” head coach Stew Burke said. “We knew being in the afternoon wave that we would have to grind and hang in there. We actually grinded pretty well, but we just gave up a couple of bogeys in the end. That will put us in the afternoon wave again tomorrow in the tougher conditions. Unfortunately, we just didn’t play well today, but, at the start of the week, all we wanted was a chance. We’re not too far back. We have to get off to a better start tomorrow.”
 
The Wildcats are only one shot out of a tie for 15th place. The top 15 teams following Sunday’s third round will advance to play in the final round of stroke play on Monday.
 
Sophomore Alenka Navarro and senior Carla Bernat led the Wildcats on Saturday as each tallied a score of 2-over par 74. Starting on No. 10, both players had a pair of bogeys over their first nine holes before paring every hole on the front half of the course.
 
Navarro enters Sunday’s third round in a tie for 19th place at even-par 144, while Bernat is tied for 33rd place at 2-over par 146.
 
Senior Sophie Bert went 4-over par 76 with three birdies on the day as she is tied for 103rd place at 8-over par 152. Bert is two shots back of freshman Nanami Nakashima, who is tied for 80th place following a round of 7-over par 79.
 
Junior Noa van Beek improved three strokes off her first-round score as she tallied a 5-over par 77. She enters Sunday’s round tied for 141st place at 13-over par 157.
 
Top-ranked Stanford had the round of the day at 10-under par 278, rising 10 spots on the leaderboard to take over the top spot. The Cardinal is at 5-under par 571, five shots ahead of Northwestern. Mississippi State’s Avery Weed holds a two-shot lead on the individual leaderboard at 7-under par 137.
 
The Wildcats tee off the third round of the NCAA Championship on Sunday off No. 1 beginning at 11:50 a.m., and K-State is paired with UCLA and LSU. Live results can be followed on SCOREBOARD powered by Clippd.

 

LOUISVILLE, Ky. –  The National Fastpitch Coaches Association announced the 383 student-athletes from 170 schools who comprise the 2025 NFCA Division III All-Region teams on Friday afternoon. Junior Abbie Hoff was named Region VII Third Team All-Region. All honorees move forward to be considered for selection for the three NFCA Division III All-America squads, which will be announced May 28 online and on-site at the NCAA Division III Finals banquet in Bloomington, Ill.

Abbie Hoff played a pivotal role in leading the Bulldogs to a strong 2025 campaign, finishing the season with an impressive 28-14 overall record and a 12-4 mark in MIAA play. Hoff emerged as one of the team’s top performers, dominating at the plate with a remarkable .429 batting average. She collected 30 hits, including eight doubles, one triple, and four home runs, while driving in 35 RBIs. Her .743 slugging percentage ranked fourth in the MIAA, and she led the conference in batting average while finishing fourth in RBIs.

Hoff was consistent and delivered in the clutch all season long, notching eight multi-hit games for the Bulldogs. She elevated her play even further during conference action, where she was nothing short of dominant, posting a staggering .500 batting average. Hoff led the team with 23 hits, including eight doubles and three home runs, while driving in a team-best 29 RBIs, proving to be a key catalyst in the Bulldogs’ success down the stretch.

Her outstanding season was capped off with her being named to the All-MIAA First Team, the first All-Conference honor of her career. Hoff’s breakout performance in 2025 firmly established her as one of the premier players in the league and a cornerstone for the Bulldogs’ success.

 

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — MCLA’s Class of 2025 was reminded to move forward with love, kindness, and pursuing what is just.

“I grew up wanting to be like my grandmother. When my grandmother was alive, she always talked about us living in the end times, but somehow her acceptance that we were living in the world’s last movement made her capacity for kindness even higher. It made her want to be better at love,” said keynote speaker Kiese Laymon, an award-winning author and Rice University professor.

“She understood that all great human beings do not get a ceremony, but we must be ceremonious to all human beings in this world.”

Per tradition, graduates marched through the iron gates on Church Street before receiving 187 undergraduate and 38 graduate degrees in the sciences, arts, business, education, and more. This was the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts’ 126th annual commencement.

“MCLA is a small institution, but it delivers big results,” said Paul Paradiso, who earned a master of business administration.

“I’m standing here alone only because I’ve been surrounded by a community of students and faculty. We’re here because of both group effort and individual drive. We work independently on projects, yet none of us got here entirely on our own.”

President James Birge reminded students that this day is a culmination of years of academic work and accomplishment.

“During your time at MCLA, you have compiled a long list of accomplishments and inspired us with your success in the classroom, in the lab, on the stage, in the gallery, on the athletic playing surfaces, and in the community. You’ve studied abroad, conducted research, participated in service trips and internships, and created community service programs to meet the needs you saw in our community,” he said.

“You were inducted into honor societies, held office in the student government, produced works of art, theater, dance, and spoken word, scored goals, runs, and baskets, and crossed finish lines. Some of you returned to school after time off, bringing with you professional and life experiences that enriched class discussions and that underscored the importance of lifelong learning.”

Birge said he and his colleagues are called to their work at MCLA by one common purpose: to contribute to the education of the next generation of leaders.

Brigh Cote, a communications major with a concentration in public relations and corporate communication, explained that she has transferred colleges twice and joined the Army, where she currently serves as a sergeant. Cote’s time at MCLA has “meant the world for me” for a variety of reasons, one being its inclusive nature.

“The very first time I heard about this school, I was sitting in my kitchen after having a meeting with my previous college that informed me that I was being fined $50 for being in a relationship with someone of the same sex. I knew I had to get out of a place like that,” she explained.

“How could I attend a college where being myself cost me money? I immediately began googling hockey teams that needed players, when my sister called me to tell me that a college named Massachusetts, College of Liberal Arts, was looking for players as they were about to start a program. I emailed the coach, and it wasn’t even 20 minutes after I sent the email that we set up a phone call.”

Cote had only one question for MCLA’s hockey coach: Can I be gay on your team?  She reported that the line went silent for a minute before her phone buzzed and a photo of two LGBTQ+ mugs appeared on the screen.

“He returned to the phone and said, ‘I will have to ask my athletic director and her wife to see if that will be a problem,'” Cote reported, followed by laughs and cheers from the crowd.

During her first hockey season, which was also the first time in MCLA history that the women’s team was established to take part in a regular season, little girls from around the city would stand outside the team’s door before they entered the ice and gave out high-fives.

“I learned a lot from them without them even knowing. At the last home game of the season, I’m about to take the ice for the third period when I feel the tap on my shoulder. It was one of the little girl’s moms, and she told me, ‘I just wanted to tell you, you’re my daughter’s favorite player. You’re super feisty, and she enjoys watching you play,’ I said, ‘Thank you,’ and I had to skate onto the ice,” she explained.

“…It hit me at that moment that we had an impact on this town, showing little girls from the Berkshires that they could be just like us.”

A “heartbreaking” injury in 2024 ended Cote’s college athletic career, but she became the official voice of the MCLA women’s hockey league. “This had helped me overcome the intense feelings I had because of not playing, but gave me a sense of purpose,” she explained.

Cote told fellow graduates to be the person they once needed.

“Be the teammate, the friend, the voice, the encouragement, the safe space, because out there, someone is hoping to find the kind of community we have built here at MCLA,” she said.

“Don’t shrink yourself to fit into places that you weren’t built for. Expand them, fill them with your truth.”

During the ceremony, honorary doctorates were conferred to Laymon, NAACP Berkshire County Branch President Dennis L. Powell, North Adams Public Schools Superintendent Barbara Malkas, and state Rep. Tricia Farley-Bouvier.

Laymon spoke about Sesame Street, grandmothers, and style.

His grandmother did not have a commencement ceremony at home in Mississippi because she could not go to any high school, college, or university, and instead, had to drop out of high school to work.

“My grandmother was the greatest human being in my life, but she could not vote in our state by law until her late 30s. Her third child, my mother, did not go to school with white children until she was a junior in high school in 1969. Sesame Street also debuted in 1969,” he explained.

Six months later, Mississippi voted to remove the children’s show from televisions across the state. The rationale leaked to the New York Times was “Some of the members of the commission were very much opposed to showing the series because it used a highly integrated cast of children,” Laymon reported.

Twenty-two days later, his grandmother joined others in publicly challenging the decision not to air Sesame Street and won. Six years after the show aired, Laymon was born and received the teachings of Sesame Street along with those of a “Palestinian, Jewish character in this big old book called the Bible named Jesus.”

“‘They’re the same teachings,’ she would say,” he reported.

“Treat folks as we want to be treated, share, be honest, be kind, admit mistakes, accept others’ mistakes, and revise, and finally, fight tyranny by all means necessary. I wasn’t a great student, but I was a great student of my grandma.”

He said his grandmother passed away a few months ago at the age of 95, around the time of statewide diversity, equity, and inclusion bans.

“Our desire to organize, our capacity for kindness, and our desire to revise all that we have is the only thing that will save us; it is all that has ever saved us from tyranny,” Laymon said, asking that graduates exhibit love in honor of his grandmother.

Tags: graduation 2025,   MCLA,   

Waterville, Maine. – The Mules faced off against the Ducks of Stevens in the Third Round of the NCAA Tournament. Colby defeated Stevens 17-6, advancing to the Quarter Finals. 

The Ducks and Mules spent the first half in a near stalemate due to excellent defensive pressure by both teams. The first quarter saw more action from Stevens, who scored two goals to Colby’s one, but the Mules reciprocated in the second quarter with four goals to the Ducks’ three, resulting in a 5-5 tie at the half. The Mules would kick it into high gear offensively in the second half while keeping their defense strong. Colby came out swinging, scoring two goals in the first three minutes of the second half. When Stevens answered with a goal of their own, the Mules made sure that would never happen again. Pushing again offensively, Colby settled into a 13-6 lead. In the fourth quarter, the Mules kept going and scored an additional four goals while holding Stevens at zero. This resulted in a 17-6 win for Colby.

Jillian Kane’s nine saves were one part of an outstanding defensive game by the Mules. Kat Munter and Gisele Uva caused four turnovers each, and Avery Del Cole caused two, further contributing massively to the defensive push by Colby. Julia Jardina was the lead scorer for the Mules with five, and Charlotte Michener was close behind with four, Ainsley Dion with three, and Kins Helmer with two. Gennie Littlejohn led the team in assists with two. 

The Mules next face off against fellow NESCAC team Wesleyan University. The match will take place Sunday, May 18, at 2 pm at home.