NEW ORLEANS - Former Appalachian State quarterback Taylor Lamb and former Coastal Carolina outside hitter Leah Hardeman have been chosen as the Sun Belt Conference Male and Female Athletes of the Year for the 2017-18 academic year, announced on Monday at the league's annual honors banquet.
The Athletes of the Year award are the highest individual honor given in the Sun Belt Conference. The award is based on outstanding leadership, achievement and character.
Lamb finished his college career first in Appalachian State and Sun Belt Conference history with 90 touchdown passes. In the 49 games he started at quarterback, the Mountaineers went 36-13. He finished his career with 9,786 passing yards, 2,008 rushing yards, 90 touchdown passes, and 23 rushing touchdowns.
“Taylor made an incredible impact,” said App State head football coach Scott Satterfield. “You can look back and you can see a bunch of stats, but all the things that he did on the field, he had more of an impact with his leadership.”
In his final season in Boone, N.C., the signal-caller threw for 2,737 yards with 27 touchdowns in leading the Mountaineers to a share of the Sun Belt regular season title and a bowl win over Toledo.
Lamb is now a graduate assistant for the University of South Carolina football program.
Hardeman stepped away from the volleyball court last fall as not just one of the best volleyball players in Coastal or Sun Belt history, but one of the best volleyball players in NCAA Division I history. At the conclusion of the 2017 season, Hardeman became the first student-athlete in NCAA Division I women’s volleyball history to be named Conference Player of the Year four times.
Those Conference Player of the Year awards (twice in the Big South and twice in the Sun Belt) meant that the accolades came early in her career. Hardeman credited her competitiveness and drive as the reason for her early success.
“In her four years, she completely shifted the mentality here from contending to Conference championships, to winning Conference championships,” said Coastal Carolina Assistant Coach CJ Allard.
Aside from her conference award accolades, Hardeman led the fight for the Chanticleers as they reached the NCAA tournament four consecutive years and won both the Sun Belt East Division and the Sun Belt Tournament Championship in the two seasons Coastal has been in the league. She was also named an AVCA All-Region selection for the third straight season, becoming the first in program history to earn the distinction three consecutive years.
Additionally, the Sun Belt honored the Top Male and Female Postgraduate Award Winners at the banquet. The announcement of their awards previously took place in June.
Former Louisiana Ragin’ Cajun Dylan Moore and former ULM Warhawk Baillie Cunningham were honored as the top recipients.
In four seasons with the Ragin' Cajuns, Dylan Moore claimed both the Sun Belt and Louisiana career saves record with 38. Moore, a 2016 All-American selection, also holds the Ragin' Cajuns single season saves record with 14. Moore was named to the All-Sun Belt baseball teams in both 2015 and 2016 and finished his career with a 15-8 record and a 2.53 ERA in 167 innings pitched.
A native of Hughes Springs, Texas, Moore also excelled in the classroom becoming the first player in program history to be named to multiple Academic All-American teams being selected three years in a row to the CoSIDA Academic All-America squads including a first team nod in 2016. Moore notched a perfect 4.0 GPA while graduating summa cum laude last spring from Louisiana.
Cunningham recorded 25 top-10 finishes during her four-year track career at ULM. As a senior in 2018, Cunningham posted a personal-record 2:19.73 in the 800 meters at the LSU Alumni Gold Meet. Her top individual finish came in the 800m (2:22.54) at the 2017 Central Arkansas Open.
The Baldwyn, Miss., native also competed in cross country as both a junior and senior. In 2017, Cunningham recorded Top-10 finishes in the Warhawk Invitational (seventh) and Louisiana Tech Triple Duals (eighth with 4K personal-best 17:16.4).
Cunningham graduated summa cum laude (perfect 4.0 cumulative grade-point average) in May 2018 with a Bachelor of Science in toxicology. She earned a position on the President’s List all eight semesters. Cunningham was also selected Phi Kappa Phi her last three semesters.
Lastly, the league also announced Georgia State as the Institutional Graduation Rate Award winner. It marked the second time in the last three years that the Panthers have won the honor.