2021 Bucknell Athletics Hall of Fame Class Announced
5/13/2021 2:05:00 PM | Baseball, Field Hockey, Men's Golf, Softball, Women's Soccer, Women's Tennis, Wrestling, Bison Club
LEWISBURG, Pa. – The Bucknell Athletics Hall of Fame Committee has revealed the Class of 2021, and seven former Bison greats -- representing seven different sports -- will comprise the 43rd induction class.
The Bucknell Athletics Hall of Fame Class of 2021:
The new Hall of Fame class has a distinct Pennsylvania flavor, with four of the seven inductees hailing from Central or Northeast PA. Snyder is a native of Jersey Shore (Jersey Shore H.S.); Walter is from nearby Mifflinburg (Mifflinburg Area H.S.); Faust came to Bucknell from Kingston (Wyoming Valley West H.S.); and Matlack is from South Williamsport (South Williamsport Area H.S.).
Also of note, this is Bucknell's first Hall of Fame class to feature as many as four women. Three women were inducted on eight previous occasions.
Below are more details on the Bucknell Athletics Hall of Fame Class of 2021.
Julia Diaz '95 becomes the second Bison women's tennis player to be enshrined in the Hall of Fame, and the first who focused solely on the sport of tennis. Majorie Deck '73 was inducted in 1989, but Deck also starred in field hockey and basketball, in addition to tennis.
Diaz was a two-year captain and one of the most successful players in Bison women's tennis history. She compiled career records of 34-11 in singles and 26-6 in doubles, and her singles mark was far and away the best in team history for a No. 1 player in the lineup at that time. Diaz's career totals might have climbed even higher had she not missed her entire junior year due to a knee injury suffered in preseason training.
Her .779 career winning percentage is one of the best in team history and is all the more impressive considering that she played in the No. 1 position in the lineup from her freshman year on. A native of Lutherville, Md., and a graduate of McDonogh School, Diaz played on teams that compiled a 49-8 record in dual matches (43-3 in the three seasons in which she was not injured), and she helped lead the Bison to Patriot League team championships in 1992 and 1994 under Hall-of-Fame coach Rose Ewan. From early in the 1991 season until midway through the 1992 campaign, Bucknell established a school record with 25 consecutive victories, all with Diaz playing in the No. 1 singles position.
She was an All-Patriot League selection in doubles in 1993-94 and was the only Bucknell player named to the Patriot League All-Decade Team in 2001. Diaz was the co-winner of the Christy Mathewson Award along with Lisa Gibbons (soccer) and Tameka Hinton (track and field), both of whom are also enshrined in the Hall of Fame.
Jenny Snyder '99 is one of the most decorated players in the history of the Bucknell softball program. She was a Second Team All-Patriot League selection as a freshman, and then she earned First Team honors in each of the next three seasons. All of that culminated with a Patriot League Player of the Year honor as a senior, when she hit .429 and set Bucknell single-season records for hits (66), doubles (14) and runs scored (44).
Playing for Hall-of-Fame coach Terrie Grieb, Snyder fashioned a .336 career batting average and graduated with 15 team records, including career marks in games played (166), games started (163), assists (472) and at-bats (563). She graduated ranked No. 2 all-time in hits with 189, trailing only fellow Hall-of-Famer Lisa Fink.
Snyder was the starting shortstop on Bucknell's very first Patriot League championship team in 1997, and her double was one of the key blows in a three-run top of the 19th inning rally in an epic 4-1 win over Colgate in the title game.
Kyle Walter '06 was recruited by Hall-of-Fame baseball coach Gene Depew from just down the road in Mifflinburg, and Walter put together a terrific four-year career for the Bison. He became the first player in Bucknell history and just the second in Patriot League history to earn four All-Patriot League citations.
Walter was just the third player in team history ever to amass over 200 career hits (210), a total that ranked second on Bucknell's all-time list at the time of his graduation, only seven behind fellow Hall-of-Famer Tyler Prout. Walter also broke the school record for career doubles (45), and his career batting average of .337 ranked seventh all-time at graduation. Walter enjoyed a huge senior year, hitting .335 with a team-best 37 RBIs, 33 runs scored and 17 doubles.
Walter made an immediate impact at Bucknell, hitting .308 with 30 runs scored and 24 RBIs as a freshman in 2003, helping the Bison to a Patriot League championship and a trip to the NCAA Regionals in Austin, Texas. He earned Louisville Slugger Freshman All-America honors that season.
Walter played center field all four years as a Bison, and as a senior he was also thrust into action as a left-handed pitcher. In 10 innings of work he struck out 13 batters, and later that summer he was drafted as a pitcher in the 18th round of the MLB Draft by the Toronto Blue Jays. Walter played three years of minor league baseball, and he was later named to the Patriot League 25th Anniversary Team.
Amanda Faust '09 was not only a four-time All-Patriot League selection, but she also became the first Bucknell field hockey player to garner three First Team All-Region citations. Named the Patriot League Rookie of the Year in 2005, Faust went on to compile 29 goals and a school-record 34 assists in her stellar career.
A dominant defensive player who was also a prolific scorer, particularly on penalty corners, Faust was the captain of an 11-win team as a senior. She graduated with 92 career points, the most by a Bucknell player in 29 years. In fact, the only two players in team history with more points were 1970s-era Hall-of-Famers Karin Wegener and Kathy Kline.
Faust was invited to play in the North-South All-Star game following her senior year, and she was later named to the Patriot League 25th Anniversary Team.
Andrew Cohen '10 is one of the top golfers in Bucknell history, and he helped keep the program's run of success going following the graduation of another Hall-of-Famer in Charlie Waddell. Cohen was part of two Patriot League championship teams, he made two NCAA Regionals appearances, and he posted four individual tournament wins and 18 top-10 finishes, including 15 in his final 22 career events.
Cohen finished in the top 10 at the Patriot League Championship all four years, giving him four all-conference medals, and that run was highlighted by his league title as a junior in 2009. That year Cohen shattered the Patriot League Championship scoring record with rounds of 71-68-69 at West Point to lift the Bison to their third team crown in four years.
Cohen was named the Golf Week Division I National Player of the Week after a stretch in which he completed 90 consecutive holes in 3-under par. In five fall events in his senior year, he finished 3rd-1st-2nd-3rd-4th, and then in the spring he posted three more top-10s, including a win at the Lafayette Invitational where he closed with a 6-under 66. That established a new school record for strokes under par in a round.
Cohen broke Waddell's school record with a 72.4 fall scoring average and a 73.2 mark over a full season, and he tied Waddell's record with the four tournament wins. Cohen was later named to the Patriot League 25th Anniversary Team.
Kevin LeValley '11 was part of the Dan Wirnsberger's second wrestling recruiting class after the sport was reinstated to varsity status in 2005, and LeValley spent his four undergraduate years rewriting the Bucknell record book.
LeValley became Bucknell's third two-time All-American after finishing seventh at 149 pounds at the NCAA Championships in both 2010 and 2011. He also set the team records for wins in a season (42) and career (127), breaking the marks previously held by former teammate Andy Rendos, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame with the Class of 2020.
LeValley's senior campaign will go down as one of the best in school history. He finished 34-3 for a .919 winning percentage that ranked second all-time behind only Hall-of-Famer Tom Scotton, who was 28-1 in 1977-78. LeValley was ranked as high as No. 2 nationally in 2010-11, and the highlight of his career was upsetting four-time national champion Kyle Dake of Cornell to win the EIWA title at 149 pounds. Dake, considered one of the finest collegiate wrestlers of all-time, held a career record of 137-4. LeValley earned the EIWA Coaches' Trophy after that performance.
LeValley posted a 10-6 record in his three career trips to the NCAA Championships. He was also a three-time EIWA placewinner, with second and sixth-place finishes to go along with his title as a senior. LeValley became the first Bison ever to win an individual title at the Midlands Championships, and he was the first Bison to win at the NWCA All-Star Classic.
A two-year team captain who went 20-10 against ranked opponents in his final two collegiate seasons, LeValley competed internationally after graduation and was ranked as high as 12th in the world. He won a gold medal at the 2013 Cerro Pelado International in Cuba and the 2017 Dave Schultz Memorial International. He was runner-up at the 2014 Alexander Medved International in Belarus, fourth at the 2014 U.S. Open, and third at the 2015 World Team Trials. LeValley, who was the Christy Mathewson Award recipient as the top senior athlete in his class at Bucknell, later returned to his alma mater as an assistant coach.
Like LeValley, Christa Matlack '11 earned a Hall-of-Fame nod in her first year on the ballot. One of the most prolific scorers in Bucknell women's soccer history, Matlack was the 2009 and 2010 Patriot League Offensive Player of the Year and was also a three-time First Team All-Patriot League honoree.
Matlack recorded at least seven goals in all four of her seasons at Bucknell, and her 32 career goals were fifth-most in team history at the time of her graduation. She also ranked fifth in total points (78) and seventh in assists (14) on Bucknell's career lists.
Matlack scored the lone goal in Bucknell's 1-0 win over Colgate that gave the Bison the 2010 Patriot League regular-season title, and she was part of teams that went 20-7-1 against Patriot League competition. Matlack was named to the Philly Soccer News Best XI Team and was also an NSCAA All-Region selection in 2009.
Just as prolific in the classroom, Matlack became the first player in team history to garner NSCAA Scholar All-America honors, doing so twice as a junior and senior. She was one of 35 national recipients and was honored at the NSCAA national convention.
A Christy Mathewson Award winner and a member of the Patriot League 25th Anniversary Team, Matlack later became head women's soccer coach at Penn College in her native Williamsport.
The Bucknell Athletics Hall of Fame Class of 2021:
- Julia Diaz '95, a standout women's tennis player who won nearly 80 percent of her career matches for teams that compiled a 49-8 record.
- Jenny Snyder '99, a four-time All-Patriot League shortstop on the Bucknell softball team.
- Kyle Walter '06, a four-time All-Patriot League outfielder on the Bison baseball team.
- Amanda Faust '09, the only Bucknell field hockey player ever to earn First Team All-Region honors three times.
- Andrew Cohen '10, the 2009 Patriot League men's golf champion who helped lead the Bison to two NCAA Tournament appearances.
- Kevin LeValley '11, a two-time wrestling All-American and the program's all-time wins leader.
- Christa Matlack '11, an offensive force for the Bison women's soccer team who captured back-to-back Patriot League Offensive Player of the Year honors in 2009 and 2010.
The new Hall of Fame class has a distinct Pennsylvania flavor, with four of the seven inductees hailing from Central or Northeast PA. Snyder is a native of Jersey Shore (Jersey Shore H.S.); Walter is from nearby Mifflinburg (Mifflinburg Area H.S.); Faust came to Bucknell from Kingston (Wyoming Valley West H.S.); and Matlack is from South Williamsport (South Williamsport Area H.S.).
Also of note, this is Bucknell's first Hall of Fame class to feature as many as four women. Three women were inducted on eight previous occasions.
Below are more details on the Bucknell Athletics Hall of Fame Class of 2021.
Julia Diaz '95 becomes the second Bison women's tennis player to be enshrined in the Hall of Fame, and the first who focused solely on the sport of tennis. Majorie Deck '73 was inducted in 1989, but Deck also starred in field hockey and basketball, in addition to tennis.
Diaz was a two-year captain and one of the most successful players in Bison women's tennis history. She compiled career records of 34-11 in singles and 26-6 in doubles, and her singles mark was far and away the best in team history for a No. 1 player in the lineup at that time. Diaz's career totals might have climbed even higher had she not missed her entire junior year due to a knee injury suffered in preseason training.
Her .779 career winning percentage is one of the best in team history and is all the more impressive considering that she played in the No. 1 position in the lineup from her freshman year on. A native of Lutherville, Md., and a graduate of McDonogh School, Diaz played on teams that compiled a 49-8 record in dual matches (43-3 in the three seasons in which she was not injured), and she helped lead the Bison to Patriot League team championships in 1992 and 1994 under Hall-of-Fame coach Rose Ewan. From early in the 1991 season until midway through the 1992 campaign, Bucknell established a school record with 25 consecutive victories, all with Diaz playing in the No. 1 singles position.
She was an All-Patriot League selection in doubles in 1993-94 and was the only Bucknell player named to the Patriot League All-Decade Team in 2001. Diaz was the co-winner of the Christy Mathewson Award along with Lisa Gibbons (soccer) and Tameka Hinton (track and field), both of whom are also enshrined in the Hall of Fame.
Jenny Snyder '99 is one of the most decorated players in the history of the Bucknell softball program. She was a Second Team All-Patriot League selection as a freshman, and then she earned First Team honors in each of the next three seasons. All of that culminated with a Patriot League Player of the Year honor as a senior, when she hit .429 and set Bucknell single-season records for hits (66), doubles (14) and runs scored (44).
Playing for Hall-of-Fame coach Terrie Grieb, Snyder fashioned a .336 career batting average and graduated with 15 team records, including career marks in games played (166), games started (163), assists (472) and at-bats (563). She graduated ranked No. 2 all-time in hits with 189, trailing only fellow Hall-of-Famer Lisa Fink.
Snyder was the starting shortstop on Bucknell's very first Patriot League championship team in 1997, and her double was one of the key blows in a three-run top of the 19th inning rally in an epic 4-1 win over Colgate in the title game.
Kyle Walter '06 was recruited by Hall-of-Fame baseball coach Gene Depew from just down the road in Mifflinburg, and Walter put together a terrific four-year career for the Bison. He became the first player in Bucknell history and just the second in Patriot League history to earn four All-Patriot League citations.
Walter was just the third player in team history ever to amass over 200 career hits (210), a total that ranked second on Bucknell's all-time list at the time of his graduation, only seven behind fellow Hall-of-Famer Tyler Prout. Walter also broke the school record for career doubles (45), and his career batting average of .337 ranked seventh all-time at graduation. Walter enjoyed a huge senior year, hitting .335 with a team-best 37 RBIs, 33 runs scored and 17 doubles.
Walter made an immediate impact at Bucknell, hitting .308 with 30 runs scored and 24 RBIs as a freshman in 2003, helping the Bison to a Patriot League championship and a trip to the NCAA Regionals in Austin, Texas. He earned Louisville Slugger Freshman All-America honors that season.
Walter played center field all four years as a Bison, and as a senior he was also thrust into action as a left-handed pitcher. In 10 innings of work he struck out 13 batters, and later that summer he was drafted as a pitcher in the 18th round of the MLB Draft by the Toronto Blue Jays. Walter played three years of minor league baseball, and he was later named to the Patriot League 25th Anniversary Team.
Amanda Faust '09 was not only a four-time All-Patriot League selection, but she also became the first Bucknell field hockey player to garner three First Team All-Region citations. Named the Patriot League Rookie of the Year in 2005, Faust went on to compile 29 goals and a school-record 34 assists in her stellar career.
A dominant defensive player who was also a prolific scorer, particularly on penalty corners, Faust was the captain of an 11-win team as a senior. She graduated with 92 career points, the most by a Bucknell player in 29 years. In fact, the only two players in team history with more points were 1970s-era Hall-of-Famers Karin Wegener and Kathy Kline.
Faust was invited to play in the North-South All-Star game following her senior year, and she was later named to the Patriot League 25th Anniversary Team.
Andrew Cohen '10 is one of the top golfers in Bucknell history, and he helped keep the program's run of success going following the graduation of another Hall-of-Famer in Charlie Waddell. Cohen was part of two Patriot League championship teams, he made two NCAA Regionals appearances, and he posted four individual tournament wins and 18 top-10 finishes, including 15 in his final 22 career events.
Cohen finished in the top 10 at the Patriot League Championship all four years, giving him four all-conference medals, and that run was highlighted by his league title as a junior in 2009. That year Cohen shattered the Patriot League Championship scoring record with rounds of 71-68-69 at West Point to lift the Bison to their third team crown in four years.
Cohen was named the Golf Week Division I National Player of the Week after a stretch in which he completed 90 consecutive holes in 3-under par. In five fall events in his senior year, he finished 3rd-1st-2nd-3rd-4th, and then in the spring he posted three more top-10s, including a win at the Lafayette Invitational where he closed with a 6-under 66. That established a new school record for strokes under par in a round.
Cohen broke Waddell's school record with a 72.4 fall scoring average and a 73.2 mark over a full season, and he tied Waddell's record with the four tournament wins. Cohen was later named to the Patriot League 25th Anniversary Team.
Kevin LeValley '11 was part of the Dan Wirnsberger's second wrestling recruiting class after the sport was reinstated to varsity status in 2005, and LeValley spent his four undergraduate years rewriting the Bucknell record book.
LeValley became Bucknell's third two-time All-American after finishing seventh at 149 pounds at the NCAA Championships in both 2010 and 2011. He also set the team records for wins in a season (42) and career (127), breaking the marks previously held by former teammate Andy Rendos, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame with the Class of 2020.
LeValley's senior campaign will go down as one of the best in school history. He finished 34-3 for a .919 winning percentage that ranked second all-time behind only Hall-of-Famer Tom Scotton, who was 28-1 in 1977-78. LeValley was ranked as high as No. 2 nationally in 2010-11, and the highlight of his career was upsetting four-time national champion Kyle Dake of Cornell to win the EIWA title at 149 pounds. Dake, considered one of the finest collegiate wrestlers of all-time, held a career record of 137-4. LeValley earned the EIWA Coaches' Trophy after that performance.
LeValley posted a 10-6 record in his three career trips to the NCAA Championships. He was also a three-time EIWA placewinner, with second and sixth-place finishes to go along with his title as a senior. LeValley became the first Bison ever to win an individual title at the Midlands Championships, and he was the first Bison to win at the NWCA All-Star Classic.
A two-year team captain who went 20-10 against ranked opponents in his final two collegiate seasons, LeValley competed internationally after graduation and was ranked as high as 12th in the world. He won a gold medal at the 2013 Cerro Pelado International in Cuba and the 2017 Dave Schultz Memorial International. He was runner-up at the 2014 Alexander Medved International in Belarus, fourth at the 2014 U.S. Open, and third at the 2015 World Team Trials. LeValley, who was the Christy Mathewson Award recipient as the top senior athlete in his class at Bucknell, later returned to his alma mater as an assistant coach.
Like LeValley, Christa Matlack '11 earned a Hall-of-Fame nod in her first year on the ballot. One of the most prolific scorers in Bucknell women's soccer history, Matlack was the 2009 and 2010 Patriot League Offensive Player of the Year and was also a three-time First Team All-Patriot League honoree.
Matlack recorded at least seven goals in all four of her seasons at Bucknell, and her 32 career goals were fifth-most in team history at the time of her graduation. She also ranked fifth in total points (78) and seventh in assists (14) on Bucknell's career lists.
Matlack scored the lone goal in Bucknell's 1-0 win over Colgate that gave the Bison the 2010 Patriot League regular-season title, and she was part of teams that went 20-7-1 against Patriot League competition. Matlack was named to the Philly Soccer News Best XI Team and was also an NSCAA All-Region selection in 2009.
Just as prolific in the classroom, Matlack became the first player in team history to garner NSCAA Scholar All-America honors, doing so twice as a junior and senior. She was one of 35 national recipients and was honored at the NSCAA national convention.
A Christy Mathewson Award winner and a member of the Patriot League 25th Anniversary Team, Matlack later became head women's soccer coach at Penn College in her native Williamsport.
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