BETHLEHEM, Pa. --- Moravian College is continuing its look back at its 2018-19 athletic campaign. The second entry in our second countdown of the summer – the Top 10 Stories of the Year selected by the athletic administration – is our No. 9 highlight – Oneil Holder and Kat Spilman being named the Outstanding Senior Athletes and Paige Kovacs and Nick Zambelli honored as the Blue & Grey Senior Scholar-Athletes.
Each May, Moravian concludes the academic year by honoring its graduating senior class of the student-athletes at the annual Senior Athlete Banquet. This year's event was held on Wednesday, May 8 in Johnston Hall as the Greyhounds said goodbye to the 102 student-athletes in the Class of 2019. To culminate the event, the athletic department staff votes on and presents the Blue & Grey Senior Scholar-Athlete and Outstanding Senior Athlete honors.
Holder earned numerous postseason awards in 2019 including the Landmark All-Conference First Team, the D3hoops.com All-Middle Atlantic Region Second Team, the National Association of Basketball Coaches All-Middle Atlantic Second Team and the Lehigh Valley Small College Basketball Team of the Year. He led the men's basketball squad with averages of 18.5 points and 6.5 rebounds per game winter as a forward while helping Moravian to its second consecutive Landmark Conference title, a 20-9 record and the program's first-ever NCAA Division III Tournament victory.
Spilman helped the softball squad to a 32-7 record this season as an outfielder. This year she hit .379 with 50 hits, 41 runs, 33 RBIs, four doubles, a triple and four home runs. Spilman, who was the 2018 Landmark Conference Co-Player of the Year and the 2016 Landmark Conference Rookie of the Year, was a four-time Landmark All-Conference honoree, making the First Team in 2018 and the Second Team in 2016, 2017 and 2019.
Kovacs, who was defender on the women's soccer team, had a 3.96 GPA while majoring in early childhood education and special education. She has been on the Dean's List every semester and is a member of Moravian's Chi Alpha Sigma National Athlete Honor Society induction class. Kovacs is a three-time Landmark Conference Fall Academic Honor Roll selection, was on the 2018 Landmark Conference Fall All-Sportsmanship Team.
Zambelli, a defensive back and linebacker during his career on the football squad, posted a 4.00 GPA in his career while majoring in both computer science and economics with a minor in mathematics. Last fall, he was fifth on the squad with 54 tackles including 28 solo stops and one and a half tackles for loss despite missing a game with an injury. He also had two passes defended including one interception and a forced fumble. Zambelli was the three-time member of the Centennial Conference Fall Academic Honor Roll and he was selected as both the 2017 Centennial Conference Football Scholar-Athlete of the Year and the 2017-18 Centennial Conference Male Scholar Athlete of the Year. He was on the 2017 Fall All-Centennial Conference Team for student-athletes that earn both All-Conference and Academic Honor Roll accolades. Zambelli was also a two-time Google Cloud NCAA Division III Football Academic All-America First Team selection, the number 10 story of the year.
Read the original story at https://www.moraviansports.com/general/2018-19/releases/20190508wtonxc.
The number eight story in the countdown will be released on Friday, July 12.
