2005-06 proved yet another successful year in the rich tradition of Southwestern athletics. The Pirates sent two teams to the NCAA Tournament, captured a conference title and had a team ranked sixth in the nation.

The 2005 volleyball team had one of its most productive seasons in a decade under second-year head coach Hannah Long. The Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference’s (SCAC) Co-Champions and winners of the SCAC’s top awards, 2005’s edition of Southwestern University volleyball more than lived up to the high expectations of the program’s reputation.

Pirates Volleyball captured their first Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference title since 1997, advanced to the semifinals of the NCAA Division III South Regional and produced a school record 36 wins on the season.

The women’s golf team achieved similar success, making their first trip to the NCAA Division III Championships since 2000 and finishing the year ranked sixth in the nation.

The quartet of Lindsay Dye ’09, Marisa Mauldin ’08, Delilah Dominguez ’08 and Jenny Howell ’08 led the Pirates to their best season in recent years, and as a tribute to their success, the Southwestern first-year class was named as the best among Division III teams in the nation.

Southwestern golf finished its season with a 10th place finish at the NCAA Championships. Both Dominguez and Marisa Mauldin earned All-Region honors.

2005-06 also produced a first-ever win for women’s soccer over archrival Trinity University. On October 15 in San Antonio, the women’s soccer team came away with a 2-1 victory over No. 7 Trinity. With the win, the Pirates handed the Tigers their first loss of the 2005 season.

The 2006-07 Pirate men’s basketball team will have a distinctly new look and one thing is for certain, the returning players and newcomers will have big shoes to fill. Southwestern will lose perhaps the best class of players in school history with the departure of seniors Aaron Bowser, Ty Ragland, Jamonn Little, Robert Cates, Dan Slezak and Danny Franklin.

Due in large part to these six players, Southwestern men’s basketball has produced a 73-33 overall mark in the last four seasons—the program’s best four-year run since joining the SCAC. Cates, Little and Bowser all garnered All-Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) honors this season. Little was named to the All-SCAC first team, while both Cates and Bowser were second team picks. Bowser also was named the SCAC’s Co-Defensive Player of the Year.