Kayla Kline '20 earns the Most Outstanding Female Athlete after earning the Sol "Woody" Wolf Award as the most improved junior athlete in 2019.
"I have so many people to thank," Kline said. "Teammates, coaches, both Coach Montoro and Coach Ditzler. I want to thank my parents, who have gotten me through sports since I was little. I want to thank God, he's given me this ability to do what I do. I also want to thank
Josh Gooch, our assistant athletic trainer, who has helped me back from several knee injuries in college. I probably wouldn't have been where I was without him."
A year after becoming the second female athlete in school history to earn First Team All-MAC Commonwealth honors in two sports in the same season, in mid-January, it looked like
Kayla Kline was on course to do it again in 2019-20. She averaged 13.9 points and 8.5 rebounds per game for the women's basketball team, sitting comfortably in the top 10 in the league in both categories. She earned
D3hoops.com Team of the Week accolades for her play in wins over King's and defending CSAC champion Rosemont. She was named the MVP of Moravian's Tournament after posting 16 points in a win in the championship game of the event, the same game where she became the 12
th player in school history to reach 1,000 career points.
"When Kayla came in as a freshman, we thought that she might have a shot at this award based on what we saw when she came in, so we're really, really happy for her," women's basketball head coach
Christen Ditzler said. "With her God-given talent, the support of her family, and her competitive drive, which is unlike any other player I've ever coached, that's what made her into the athlete she is today. That combination is one we're going to miss. You don't find that very often."
However, a torn meniscus ended her basketball career with nine games remaining in the season. Still, in just 79 career games, she finished her career eighth in school history with 587 rebounds, 11
th with 1,026 points, 17
th with 166 assists and 19
th with 39 blocked shots.
"It's unfortunate that Kayla's basketball career was cut short twice, because I think she would have broken many more records," Ditzler said. "Our team, even though we were quite successful, would have been even more so had we had her. My feeling as a coach was that we had
Kayla Kline and you didn't and that gave us an advantage in every single game. I'm sure Coach Montoro feels the same way about her impact."
Just six weeks later, Kayla was competing again, this time as the cleanup hitter and shortstop for the softball team. On the opening night of the season, she crushed a homer to center field against Fitchburg State. The next day, she hit a game-tying three run triple in the bottom of the seventh to lead the Warriors to a dramatic win against Norwich. By the end of the week, she was hitting .462 with nine runs, four doubles, a triple, two homers and 12 RBI to go with a gaudy .923 slugging percentage, but the season stopped abruptly due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Most people don't know she only really practiced the week before we went on our spring break trip," softball head coach
Melissa Montoro said. "She wasn't full strength until probably the end of the week and that was just her determination to play her senior year. To see her start and play so freely, I couldn't have asked for a better eight games to watch her play any better."
Kline finished her career with a school-record .457 career batting average, a .490 on-base percentage and 193 total bases while playing in just 82 games. She is second with 126 career hits and 10 home runs, fifth with 23 doubles and seven triples and sixth with 64 RBI and 73 runs.
"
Kayla Kline is one of the most athletic kids that we have had in our program in a long time," Montoro said. "What people don't know is that she is probably a better person than athlete, and that speaks volumes to who she is as a person and how she was raised. That's what made her so special. It was the relationships she had with her teammates and the bond with her coaches and professors."
She is the only player in the school's history with 1,000 points in basketball and 100 hits in softball. She is the only basketball player to earn two CoSIDA Academic All-District awards and the first to earn three D3Hoops.com Team of the Week accolades. In softball, she set six single-season school records as a freshman and finished her career holding at least 10 school records.
"I couldn't be happier with the teammates and friendships that I've made and the way my teammates have pushed me in softball and basketball," Kline said.
The accounting major was also a seven-time member of the MAC Academic Honor Roll, a two-time Academic All-MAC selection, a three-time NFCA Scholar Athlete and a member of Chi Alpha Sigma, the National College Athlete Honor Society. She is the 18
th basketball player to earn the Most Outstanding Female Athlete award and the eighth softball player.
