Brentwood, TN – Behind three Ohio Valley Conference Championships and another pair of top-five finishes in conference play, the Austin Peay State University (APSU) athletics department finished fourth in 2021-22, and its final, OVC Commissioner’s Cup.
Austin Peay State University delivered its fourth-straight top-five finish with 86.5 points – tied for its second-best mark. Belmont won the 2022 competition with 106 points, Murray State finished second (99.5), followed by Southeast Missouri (96.5) and Austin Peay State University. The Governors finished ahead of UT Martin (83.49), Tennessee Tech (82), Eastern Illinois (73.8), Morehead State (70.67), SIU Edwardsville (58), and Tennessee State (46.32).
Forty-one Austin Peay State University student-athletes earned All-OVC recognition, with 20 named First Team recipients, and six earning their respective sport’s top honor.
Koby Perry (football) was named the 2021 OVC Defensive Player of the Year for his work on the gridiron, while Marlayna Bullington (beach volleyball) became the first-ever Gov to be named OVC Player of the Year on the sand. Lexi Osowski (softball) also earned the conference’s top softball honor in being named the OVC Player of the Year. Kenisha Phillips (track and field) had one of the most impressive seasons in program history, earning her the OVC Female Track Athlete of the Year during both the indoor and outdoor seasons, while Elijah Hutchins-Everett (men’s basketball) and Erica Scutt (women’s golf) were tabbed as OVC Freshmen of the Year.
Three APSU coaches and coaching staff earned recognition during their 2021-22 campaign. Led by head coach Taylor Mott, associate head coach Travis LeBlanc and volunteer assistant coach Stephanie Spencer, beach volleyball won the conference’s coaching staff of the year award for the first time in program history.
Head women’s golf coach Jessica Combs became the second coach in program history – and first since 2018 – to be named the OVC Coach of the Year after leading the Govs to their first-ever NCAA Women’s Golf Championship Regionals appearance.
Head women’s tennis coach Ross Brown received his second-career OVC Women’s Tennis Coach of the Year honor after leading the women’s tennis team to its fifth OVC Regular Season Championship and fourth-straight title appearance. Brown is the first head coach in program history to receive the honor multiple times in a career after first receiving the honor in 2019.
“It was another good for our student-athletes and coaches,” said Austin Peay Vice President and Athletics Director Gerald Harrison. “It is crucial that we carry this momentum into the coming year, as we level up with the new goal of capturing the ASUN’s Bill Bibb All-Sports Trophy!”
Under the current scoring system, schools are required to count point totals for four main sports (football, volleyball, men’s basketball, and women’s basketball) along with their next eight highest point totals from the remaining sports, regardless of gender. Belmont, Morehead State, and SIUE, which do not compete in OVC football, count baseball as one of its four required sports.
The award (which started in 1962-63 for men’s sports and 1980-81 for women’s sports) was previously divided into a Men’s All-Sport Champion and a Women’s All-Sport Champion.
The points system for scoring is as follows. For all sports (except rifle, men’s tennis, and men’s indoor and men’s outdoor track – which have fewer participating teams), the first-place team earns 12 points, the second-place team earns 11 points, etc.
For rifle, men’s tennis and men’s indoor and men’s outdoor track and field, the first-place team earns 12 points and subsequent point increments are calculated by dividing the total number of OVC member institutions by the number of institutions sponsoring the sport (for rifle that number is 3 less, for men’s tennis and men’s indoor track that number is 1.75 less and for men’s outdoor track that number is 1.5 less).
The scoring system also includes a bonus point for the winner of OVC Tournaments (soccer, volleyball, basketball, tennis, softball, and baseball).
