General | 9/29/2015 10:47:00 AM

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. -- The Methodist University Department of Athletics is pleased to announce its 2015 Hall of Fame class, as well as its Teams of Distinction.
 
The Department's 18th class will welcome five new members to its ranks, while the Teams of Distinction, now in its third year, will see three teams honored. Men's soccer player Chris Shaw '94, women's golf coach Vici Pate Flesher, women's golfer Tracey Gage Wright '99, baseball player Ronnie Roberts '71 and softball player Jennifer Sorensen '06 comprise the Hall of Fame class, while the 1995 baseball team, the 2006 softball team, and a group known as the Yama Yama Men are this year's Teams of Distinction.
 
Shaw was an integral piece to one of the most successful eras of Methodist men's soccer. A Second Team All-American in 1993, he helped lead the Monarchs to four consecutive conference championships and four successive trips to the NCAA Tournament. His senior season (1993), the Monarchs advanced to the NCAA Elite Eight and finished with an overall record of 14-4. He was a two-time all-conference selection and is still ranked T-8th at Methodist with 19 career assists.
 
Gage Wright is another in a long line of illustrious women's golfers at Methodist. She was twice named the National Golf Coaches Association (NGCA) Player of the Year (98, 99) and helped lead the Monarchs to three National Championships. The three-time First Team All-American still has the fifth-lowest round ever recorded by an MU women's golfer (70) and won four individual tournaments over the course of her career.
 
Pate Flesher coached the women's golf team for seven seasons from 2002-09, and her teams produced National Championships in every one of her years at the helm. She was named the NGCA Coach of the Year two times (05, 06) and was also the Regional Coach of the Year in 2006. Twenty-three All-Americans played under her tutelage, and twice she had players earn national Player of the Year Awards in addition to three Freshman of the Year Awards. The single-round record for the women's golf team stands at 292, with her teams having two of the three rounds recorded at that score.
 
Roberts has the distinction of playing on the first baseball teams at Methodist under Bruce Shelley. He recorded the first base hit in program history and was a first team all-conference selection in 1969, 1970 and 1971 as a centerfielder. He was a part of the group that laid the foundation for the highly-successful baseball program that MU boasts today. His involvement with the game of baseball has continued to this day, as he currently serves as the General Manager for the Lynchburg Hillcats, a Class A Advanced Affiliate of Major League Baseball's Cleveland Indians. He has been with the organization for 25 years serving in a variety of capacities, including as the Assistant GM since 1993.
 
Sorensen enters the Hall of Fame as one of the most dominating pitchers in MU history. Twice a first team all-conference selection, and named to the second team once, she was also a two-time conference Pitcher of the Year. The Monarchs won a pair of regular season conference titles, two conference tournament titles during her tenure and advanced to the NCAA Tournament on two occasions. She had a career record of 55-21 and added 21 saves in 116 appearances. Both her saves and appearance numbers are school records, and she is second in strikeouts (336) and third in ERA (1.78).
 
It's fitting that Sorensen is being inducted, as one of the Teams of Distinction is the 2006 softball team that posted an overall record of 39-8 and captured the USA South Regular Season and Conference Tournament titles en route to the NCAA Tournament and a final national ranking of No. 11. Four players, Sorensen, Rebekah Kelly, Kristen Kennedy and Amy Faucette garnered all-region accolades.
 
The 1995 baseball team went 36-19-1, winning the DIAC Conference Championship and advancing to the NCAA Tournament. In the tournament, the Monarchs breezed through regional play, winning 3-of-4 games to advance to the College World Series. Methodist won its first two games of the World Series before dropping a one-run affair to La Verne, but staved off elimination with two more wins to advance to the NCAA Championship game before falling to La Verne once more. The NCAA Runner-Up finish is the highest finish ever for an MU baseball team. That season, the Monarchs had three all-conference selections and one First Team All-American.
 
The last group to join the Teams of Distinction is the Yama Yama Men from 1964 and 1965. While not a varsity sport, or even one particular team for that matter, the Yama Yama Men laid the groundwork for Methodist to begin sponsoring intercollegiate athletics while the University was still in its infancy. The group of students, which remained largely intact from year to year, participated in nearly every intramural sport that was offered at the time and proved to be a more than formidable foe. Capturing nearly every championship awarded, the fervor displayed by the "student-athletes" proved a catalyst to the University's expanding intercollegiate athletics.
 
The 18th Hall of Fame Class and the third Team of Distinction Class will be honored during Homecoming Weekend, Oct. 16-17. The honorees will be recognized with a dinner in the Berns Student Center on the 16th beginning at 6:30 pm, and again be recognized at halftime of the football game the following day.