It’s time for our 2025 Black & Gold Banneret Awards! This week we present our nominees for each award honoring the best people, moments and performances from your UCF Knights in the 2024-25 athletic year.
Our staff has chosen the nominees for each award. We will then vote on them this week, and you the fans, can vote as well in the poll below. The winner of the fan vote counts as one vote, and in the event of a tie, the award goes to the winner of the fan vote.
Women’s Play of the Year Nominees
Jazmen Newberry’s Comeback — Track & Field
"...BUT HERE COMES UCF!!" You gotta see
ADthis incredible bell lap by @UCF_Track's Jazmen Newberry to win the Big 12 4x400M Relay! pic.twitter.com/L6yUhyxEFV
— UCF Knights (@UCFKnights) May 18, 2025
- Thanks to a rain delay, it was a late night for the 4x400m relay team at the Big 12 Outdoor Championships, with the race not even getting started until near midnight Eastern time. Entering the anchor leg, Jazmen Newberry sat a distant third behind TCU’s Bryce Brazzell (1.83 seconds) and Arizona’s Antonia Sanchez Nunez (1.32 seconds). While the commentators were focused on the Wildcat tracking down the Horned Frog, the Knight turned on the afterburners. The UAlbany transfer crossed the finish line 0.26 seconds ahead of Sanchez Nunez to win the heat and got UCF their second Big 12 Outdoor gold medal after beating out the previous heat winner Iowa State’s time by 0.21 seconds.
Olivia Lincer’s Deuce Point — Women’s Tennis
- Olivia Lincer had already fought off three match points to reach this deuce point with Oklahoma State’s Melissa Ercan in the Big 12 Tournament Semifinals (6:55 in the video above). If Ercan gets the ball by her, or she makes a mistake, it’s over for UCF, who is tied 3-3 with the Cowgirls. When Ercan sends a shot straight down her right sideline, Lincer sprints over and executes a one-handed backhand shot to keep the rally alive. The Cowgirl could not respond, hitting the ball into the net and sending the Knights to the Big 12 Championship Match.
Ashleigh Griffin’s Go-Ahead Homer vs. Stetson — Softball
Five minutes of homers?
— UCF Softball (@UCF_Softball) April 24, 2025
Five minutes of homers. pic.twitter.com/wLfpCIhjL7
- The UCF Softball team was already having a historic power-hitting night in DeLand, with their seven home runs to that point helping close an 11-run deficit to Stetson to just two by the seventh inning. With two runners on base and down to her last strike, all Ashleigh Griffin needed was one swing of the bat to complete the largest comeback in program history (4:15 in the video above).
Madi Simon’s Home Run Robbery — Softball
MADI SIMON ARE YOU KIDDING?! https://t.co/BpjRLHBG6H pic.twitter.com/6aoQ8nocze
— UCF Softball (@UCF_Softball) March 9, 2025
- It was a standout moment in a statement series for UCF Softball against #4 Arizona Wildcats. Both teams were tied up, 3-3, in the fourth inning of Game 2, a game the Knights would ultimately take, 5-4, to clinch the series. That only makes this center-field home-run robbery by Madi Simon all the more impactful.
First 4+ Boat’s Comeback — Rowing
- Halfway through its C Final race at the NCAA Rowing Championships, the UCF Rowing team’s First 4+ boat sat 2.84 seconds, or around half a boat length, back of Virginia Cavaliers. Over the next 1,000 meters, the Knights tracked down and passed the Cavaliers, taking the win by 1.276 seconds and becoming the only one of head coach Mara Allen’s three boats to claim victory in their C Final.
More from blackandgoldbanneret.com:
- B.J. Taylor and Tacko Fall Have Cemented Their Legacies
- Knights Reach AAC Women’s Championship for the First Time
- Show #149: The Spring Sports Equinox Is Taking Its Toll (Guest: Aline Reis)
- Aubrey Dawkins’ career-high 36 points not enough as Temple bests UCF
- UCF Men’s Hoops Enters Top 25 for First Time in Eight Years
- LIVE: #25 UCF Wraps Regular Season at Temple
- UCF Takes Down #20 Cincy on Senior Knight
