ST. LEO - As a freshman, there were none better than Denyve Duncan in the Sunshine State Conference.
But the Saint Leo second baseman endured a sophomore slump, leaving questions about her productivity this season.
Duncan, the conference's freshman player of the year, responded by becoming the Lions' first .400 hitter in seven seasons.
That helped her earn SSC Co-Player of the Year honors with Florida Southern's Stephanie Huber. "She came in more prepared for her junior year," Saint Leo coach Christi Wade said. "She had a purpose. She wanted to get back on top."
Duncan, a first-teamer on the All-SSC and All-South Region lists, batted .403, the school's best average since Kelly Powe in 1997. As a leadoff hitter, Duncan led the conference with 75 hits, scored 41 runs, drove in 19 and had 21 stolen bases. She was the conference's player of the week twice.
Katie Heintz joined Duncan on the region and conference lists, only as a second-teamer.
The sophomore pitcher went 20-11 with an 0.77 ERA and 294 strikeouts.
She threw three no-hitters, had 13 shutouts and twice was named SSC pitcher of the week.
"She did a phenomenal job this year," Wade said of Heintz. "She has the mental control."
Freshman teammates Erin Brunt and Hayley Mallory were named to the all-conference second team.
Brunt, a catcher, had a team-leading 33 RBIs and hit .295 with 10 doubles, four triples and three home runs.
She also had a .998 fielding percentage.
Mallory, a leftfielder, hit .291 with three homers and 20 RBIs.
Saint Leo's softball team went 36-22, but did not make the Southern Region tournament for the second straight season. The record marked a nine-game improvement over last season.
The Lions closed out the season with a doubleheader sweep (5-4 and 11-3) of Eckerd.
SCHOLAR-ATHLETES: No one juggled schoolwork and sports better this academic year than John Semeraro and Heintz, Saint Leo's top scholar-athletes.
Semeraro also was named the school's male athlete of the year and September Harrison the female athlete of the year.
Semeraro, a junior, plays on the soccer and golf teams. She is involved in numerous student-athlete groups while maintaining a 3.62 grade-point average as an accounting major and is a three-time scholar-athlete winner. No one since the award's inception in 1996 has won more than once.
"He's even-keeled and self-motivated," Saint Leo athletic director Fran Reidy said of Semeraro, whom Reidy also coached in soccer before resigning after this season.
Heintz majors in biology and carries a 3.63 GPA.
Harrison, a basketball player, led the conference in scoring this season with a 21.8 average and was second in rebounding at 9.4. She set single-season school records for highest point average and points (610).
Harrison ranks 10th in the conference for points in a single season and finished the season fourth in the nation (Div. II) in scoring.
