Kristen Kinder Honored With Byron V. Kanaley Award

April 28, 2004

Notre Dame, Ind. — The third annual O.S.C.A.R.S. (Outstanding Student-Athletes Celebrating Achievements and Recognition Showcase) was held Wednesday evening at the Joyce Center Arena. The event honored the more than 750 student-athletes that competed on athletic teams at Notre Dame during the 2003-04 campaign.

The presentation of the three major athletic awards – The Byron V. Kanaley Award, The Francis Patrick O’Connor Award and The Christopher Zorich Service Award – highlighted the evening’s festivities. A member of each team was selected for the Notre Dame Club of St. Joseph Valley Rockne Student-Athlete Award and the Notre Dame National Monogram Club MVP Award.

In addition, certificates were presented to student-athletes who participated in the third annual Rosenthal Student Leadership Institute.

Five student-athletes were presented with the Byron V. Kanaley Award – golfer Shannon Byrne (Arlington Heights, Ill.); tennis players Luis Haddock (Caguas. Puerto Rico) and Alicia Salas (Engelwood, Colo.); women’s soccer standout Vanessa Pruzinsky (Trumbull, Conn.); and volleyball player Kristen Kinder (Fresno, Calif.).

The Kanaley Award, the most prestigious honor presented to student-athletes, has been given each year since 1927 to senior monogram athletes who have been most exemplary as both students and leaders. Chosen by the University’s Faculty Board on Athletics, the awards are name in honor of Byron V. Kanaley, a 1904 Notre Dame graduate who was a member of the Irish baseball team as an undergraduate. Kanaley went on to a successful banking career in Chicago and served the University as a lay trustee until his death in 1960.

Irish soccer standouts Kim Carpenter (Webster, N.Y.) and Greg Martin (Plano, Texas) received the Francis Patrick O’Connor Award. Since 1993, the University has presented this award in the name of O’Connor, a former student-athlete who died in 1973 following his freshman year at Notre Dame. Pat was the son of William “Bucky” O’Connor who played guard for the Notre Dame football team in the 1940.

The award honors one female and one male senior student-athlete who best display the total embodiment of the true spirit of Notre Dame as exemplified by their contributions and inspirations to their respective teams. To be considered, student-athletes must possess those qualities attributed to Pat O’Connor himself – caring, courage, confidence, encouragement, humility, honesty, humor, kindness and patience.

Senior Neil Komadoski (Chesterfield, Mo.) is the recipient of The Christopher Zorich Award, which was first presented in 1998. It was created to recognize the contributions of Notre Dame student-athletes to the University and community at-large. The award holds the name of Christopher Zorich, a two-time football All-American and 1991 graduate. He went on to play in the National Football League for both the Chicago Bears and Washington Redskins and received his law degree from Notre Dame in 2002.

Byrne becomes the first women’s golfer to receive the Kanaley Award. One of the most dedicated players in the program’s history and a four-year monogram winner, Byrne served as a co-captain of the women’s golf team in 2003-04. She earned all-BIG EAST honors in 2002-03, the conference’s first season sponsoring women’s golf, and was selected to the National Golf Coaches Association’s All-Scholar Team (3.5 GPA or higher and played in 66% of team’s tournaments) following both her junior and senior seasons. She also won the 2002-03 Notre Club of St. Joseph Valley Rockne Student-Athlete Award.

Byrne has compiled a 80.56 average in 97 rounds during her career, which is currently fourth-lowest average in the program’s 16-year history. She played in every tournament during her first three years with the Irish (31) and in 38 of 42 tournaments overall.

Byrne has also excelled in the classroom while a student-athlete at Notre Dame, earning Dean’s List distinction in six of seven semesters (including a 4.00 in the spring of ’03). She also is a member Notre Dame’s Academic Honors Program and will graduate next month from the College of Arts and Letters with a degree in political science and Spanish.

Haddock has been a four-year contributor in the Irish singles lineup, playing in the top four positions throughout that span and manning the top spot the last two seasons. In 2003-04, he has posted career-high national rankings in both singles and doubles, at 57th and 14th, respectively. Haddock holds career records of 90-40 (.692) in singles and 70-41 (.631) in doubles heading into this weekend’s BIG EAST Championship. In dual matches, he is 50-28 (.641) in singles, including 20-16 at No. 1.

Haddock immediately provided the Irish with a boost in singles, playing No. 3 as a freshman and finishing 23-10 on the season. In 2001-02, he was 27-6, including 18-5 in dual matches, mostly at No. 4. He moved to the top of the singles lineup as a junior, leading the team in overall victories with a 21-14 record.

A two-year captain, Haddock was named team MVP this season. He owns a 19-10 mark in singles play and 20-8 record in doubles action heading into the postseason. He concluded the regular season with four consecutive victories against ranked opponents, including a pair against top-20 foes, to bring his career total of wins against ranked players to 16. He and freshman Ryan Keckley became the first Irish team since 1997 to reach the doubles final of the ITA Midwest Championships.

Haddock, the eighth men’s tennis player – and fifth since 1991 – to win the Kanaley Award, is a former Puerto Rican singles (2001) and doubles (2000) national champion, as well as a six-time Davis Cup participant. A member of the Academic Honors Program and a Dean’s List honoree on five occasions, he will graduate with a degree in pre-professional studies from the College of Arts and Letters.

After not being in the Irish lineups as a freshman, Alicia Salas has established herself as one of the top players in the country in 2003-04, rising to as high as 10th in the national singles rankings and 36th in doubles. Heading into this weekend’s BIG EAST Championship, she holds career records of 94-40 (.701) in singles and 80-38 (.678) in doubles. In dual matches, she is 51-22 (.698) in singles and 51-25 (.671) in doubles.

In limited action as a rookie (going 16-4 in singles), Salas turned in one of the best seasons in school history in 2001-02, finishing 31-6 in singles. Playing mostly No. 4, she was 24-3 in dual matches, which tied the Irish record for dual-match victories in a season. Her 57 combined victories were good enough for team MVP honors. As a junior, Salas moved to the top two spots in the Irish lineup, finishing with a 24-15 mark and earning a bid to the NCAA Singles Championship.

This season, Salas stands 23-15 in singles and 21-7 in doubles. She has 14 victories over ranked opponents in singles (21 in her career) and became just the fifth player in school history to earn berths in the first two legs of the collegiate grand slam. Earlier in the spring, she won six consecutive matches against ranked opponents. Salas, a team co-captain, has been listed in each of the last 17 sets of national singles rankings, dating back to the end of 2001-02.

Salas is the sixth women’s tennis player since 1990 – and third since ’99 – to win the Kanaley award, marking the most by any sport during that span. She also is member of the Academic Honors Program and is a pre-professional and anthropology major in the College of Arts and Letters.

Vanessa Pruzinsky- a fifth-year defender and former finalist for national player-of the-year honors who graduated in May 2003 with a 4.0 cumulative grade-point average as a chemical engineering major – received several top national awards during the 2003-04 academic year. Those honors include the 2003 women’s soccer Academic All-American of the Year (as selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America), the 2003-04 BIG EAST/A?ropostale Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year Award (which carries a $4,000 stipend to be used for graduate studies) and a $7,500 scholarship from the NCAA’s Postgraduate Scholarship Program.

Pruzinsky also is a finalist for the overall CoSIDA Academic All-America of the Year Award, is being considered for the NCAA Walter Byers Scholarship (a $25,000 stipend), will be nominated for the NCAA Woman of the Year Award later this year, and was one of eight finalists for the Sporting News Radio Socrates Award, a national student-athlete program. She earlier received the Notre Dame College of Engineering’s prestigious Steiner Prize (May, 2003), recognizing all-around excellence, after becoming just the third chemical engineering major (first since ’74) to graduate from Notre Dame with a 4.0.

Pruzinsky’s athletic honors included being a member of the U.S. Under-21 National Team player pool while twice receiving NSCAA all-region honors. She returned in 2003 from a severe ankle injury that sidelined her for most of the 2002 season, helping the Irish compile an 82-12-4 record during her four healthy seasons (.857) while finishing ninth in the ND record book with 94 career starts. She also was a four-year member of the athletic department’s Academic Honors Program (faculty mentoring), received a certificate for participation in the athletic department’s Leadership Institute and did volunteer work at South Bend’s Logan Center in the summer of ’03 while serving a 2002 summer internship at Wisvest LLC (working with reverse osmosis systems and the chemical cleaning procedure for circulation boilers). She worked in the summer of ’03 as a summer research assistant at Notre Dame’s biochemistry engineering lab.

Pruzinsky – who recently began working as a chemical engineer for Merck Pharmaceuticals in Rahway, N.J. – joined former basketball great Bob Arnzen (’67, ’68, ’69) as Notre Dame’s only three-year Academic All-Americans while Pruzinsky and Penn State’s Joanna Lohman became the first players in Division I women’s soccer history to be named first team Academic All-America three times.

Kristen Kinder was named AVCA honorable mention All-America in 2003, as well as all-Northeast Region for the second time in her career and first-team all-BIG EAST for the first time. The 2001 BIG EAST Setter of the Year (award was not given in ’03), she was named the team MVP for the second consecutive season, while also winning the Notre Dame Club of St. Joseph Valley Rockne Scholar-Athlete Award for the second year in a row, marking the first time any Irish volleyball player has won both awards multiple times.

Kinder, the sixth volleyball player to win the Kanaley Award, was Notre Dame’s starting setter for three seasons, earning all-conference and all-region honors in each of those campaigns. She is just the third player in program history to be named all-BIG EAST three times. A two-time team captain, she helped Notre Dame to a 68-22 (.756) record as its top setter. During her career, the Irish won four regular-season BIG EAST titles, three tournament championships, and gained four NCAA tournament berths.

In the Notre Dame record book, Kinder finished her career ranking third in assists (3,652) and fourth in assist average (10.84). She had a career-high 68 assists against Virginia Tech on Nov. 7, 2003, which was the most by an Irish player since 2000, and finished with 27 career double-doubles.

Kinder will graduate with a degree in sociology and computer applications from the College of Arts and letters

Carpenter was a first team Academic All-District V honoree in 2003, as selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America. The attacking midfielder ranked as Notre Dame’s fifth-leading scorer in 2003 (6 goals, 5 assists) while serving as a senior leader for the nation’s second-ranked team that started 19-0-1 before finishing 20-3-1.

Formerly an invited walk-on who served as a reserve during her first three seasons, Carpenter proved to be a key impact player in 2003, registering point in six straight games during midseason while providing set-play assists on overtime goals vs. Villanova and Miami. Her other season highlights included a goal in the opener vs. perennial power Hartford, a goal in the 3-0 win over No. 5 West Virginia, the game-winning goal vs. Butler and a goal in the NCAA first round vs. Loyola of Chicago.

Carpenter is a three-time Dean’s List student with a 3.41 GPA as a pre-professional science major. She received a certificate in 2003 for her participation in the athletic department’s Leadership Institute.

Greg Martin became the first three-time captain in Notre Dame men’s soccer history in 2003 and enjoyed the most prolific season of his career with the Irish. As Notre Dame ascended the national rankings during the ’03 season (peaking at #3 in the nation entering the NCAA Championship) Martin’s team leadership and spirit became an anchor for the team as it made its first appearance in the NCAA Sweet 16.

Named to the all-BIG EAST third team, earning all-conference honors for the first time in his career, Martin was third on the team in scoring with a career-best 19 points (six goals, seven assists), adding three game winning scores.

A four-year starter, Martin finished with 13 goals and nine assists in his career. More than statistics, however, Martin was the perfect example of a Notre Dame student-athlete; dedicated to his sport, a passion and hunger for success on and off the field and an ability to display both determination and sportsmanship on the playing surface. Martin shared the Team Spirit Award, as voted on by the team members, with classmate Roger Klauer in 2003.

Neil Komadoski was a four-year regular on defense for the Notre Dame hockey team serving as an alternate captain for the Irish in 2003-04. A native of Chesterfield, Mo., Komadoski was second among defensemen in scoring for the ’03-’04 season with five goals and 15 assists for 20 points. One of four senior defenseman on this year’s team, Komadoski played a major role in helping the Irish to their first-ever NCAA tournament appearance and a final ranking of 12th in the nation.

He was named the winner of the CCHA’s Mike and Marian Ilitch Humanitarian Award that goes to the league’s top citizen based on their contributions off the ice as well as on, to his team, his program, his school and his community. Komadoski was also one of 15 nominees for college hockey’s national Humanitarian Award that goes to college hockey’s top citizen.

For his career, he played in 147 games with 10 goals and 52 assists for 62 career points and helped the Irish to three consecutive CCHA Super Six appearances. He led Irish defensemen in scoring as a junior with a goal and 23 assists for 24 points.

Komadoski served as the hockey team’s representative to Notre Dame’s Student-Athlete Advisory Council from 2001 through his senior year and has been the chairman of SAAC’s community service sub-committee since the fall of 2002. He is a marketing major in the Mendoza College of Business.

The Rosenthal Student-Athlete Leadership Institute was made possible by the generosity of Richard (Dick) Rosenthal, who earned a bachelor’s degree in finance from the University in 1954. An All-American on the men’s basketball team, he served as Notre Dame’s director of athletics from 1987-95.

The Institute, which opened in January of 2002, provides opportunities for leadership development and lifelong learning for select student-athletes at Notre Dame.

Rosenthal Student-Athlete leadership Institute Certificates of Merit

Notre Dame Club of St. Joseph Valley Rockne Student-Athlete Award Winners

National Monogram Club MVP Award Winners