LOCAL NOTEBOOK: UND's Livesay, Valdez receive all-Summit League softball honors

May 5—GRAND FORKS — The UND softball team received four honors and two on the all-Summit League team, the conference announced Tuesday.

Tegan Livesay earned first team honors, while Jaedyn Valdez was named to the second team.

Makenna Alexander and Taya Hopfauf received honorable mention nods.

Livesay, a junior pitcher from Newton, Kan., was 13-10 on the season with a 2.79 earned-run average through 22 starts and 140.1 innings. She had 15 complete games and 105 strikeouts.

She was third in the Summit in ERA and second in batting average against.

Valdez, a freshman outfielder from Arroyo Grande, Calif., led UND with a .349 batting average, along with three home runs, 18 RBIs, 23 runs, 44 hits, 14 doubles and a .955 OPS.

Valdez led the Summit in batting average among freshmen.

Hopfauf, a senior catcher from Dickinson, hit .274 with five home runs, 30 RBIs and 24 runs.

Hopfauf has played in 207 career games for the Hawks, a program record.

Alexander, a sophomore infielder from West Fargo, hit .271 with five home runs, 29 RBIs and 26 runs.

Kori Zarzutzki has been hired as the next women's basketball coach at Lake Region State College in Devils Lake.

Zarzutzki was most recently the head women's basketball coach at Southwestern Community College in Creston, Iowa.

She coached at Central Christian College of the Bible in Moberly, Mo., from 2021-24. She has also spent time at Oak Hills Christian College in Bemidji, Minn.

Zarzutzki takes over for Colden Hutton, who's now the Royals' athletic director. Hutton had been coach for two years after taking over for Ryan Clark, who led the Royals for two years and is now the head coach at Minot State.

Northland women's basketball freshman Kenzie Dahl has been named to the NJCAA Division III All-American First Team.

Dahl, who played at Badger-Greenbush-Middle River in high school, averaged 18.2 points per game while adding 6.8 rebounds per game.

Last month, Dahl was named the Minnesota College Athletic Conference North Player of the Year. She led the Pioneers to the MCAC North Division title with a 23-5 record.

Northland finished third at the national tournament after falling 57-55 to Anoka-Ramsey in the national semifinals.

Grand Forks Central boys wrestling coach Garrett Litzinger has been selected as the North Dakota Coach of the Year, as selected by the National Wrestling Coaches Association.

The Knights finished the state dual tournament in sixth place this winter and had seven wrestlers place in the top eight individually.

Grafton's Tony Villarreal of Mayville State was named to the Frontier Conference second team all-conference baseball team. Villarreal, a 5-foot-11 sophomore, led the Comets with a .358 batting average this season.