2022 Banneret Awards: Women’s Individual Performance of the Year

It’s time for the 2022 Black & Gold Banneret Awards!

Each year we pass out a bunch of awards honoring the best athletes, coaches, teams, and moments of the previous UCF Knights athletic year. Our staff votes, and so do you, the fans.

Here’s how it works: We, the staff, put together our nominees for each award. You can listen to our nominations podcast episode here. Over the next couple of weeks, we will open fan voting for each award. Each staff member gets one vote, and the winner of the fan vote will get one vote. If there is a tie, the fan vote will be the tiebreaker. We will announce the winners in two weeks.

Our 2022 Black & Gold Banneret Awards continue with Women’s Individual Performance of the Year. Here are your nominees:

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Tunrada Piddon sets new school record

Women’s Golf

Stats: Round 1: 67, Round 2: 66, Round 3: 67, Total: 200

Coming into the week of the Evie Odom Invitational in Virginia Beach, Virginia, the lowest 54-hole score in UCF Women’s Golf history sat with Elizabeth Moon, who scored a 203 in the same tournament in 2018.

In October 2021, junior Tunrada Piddon lowered the record by three strokes. Her first and third-round 67s sit tied for the 3rd lowest-scoring rounds in program history, while her second-round 66 ties for the second lowest-scoring round in program history.

The performance included a hole-in-one in the final round.

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Jada Cody hits two home runs vs. Villanova

Softball

Stats: 2 for 3 / 2 HR / 5 RBIs

Jada Cody set the tone for UCF NCAA Tournament by homering in her first two at bats. Cody is first UCF player to hit 2 homers in a NCAA Tournament game. The first was a 3 run homer in the first.

The second came in the 2nd inning as the Knights never looked back.

Cody’s 5 runs batted in tied UCF school record for most runs batted in NCAA Tournament game with Hillary Barrow against FIU in 2010.

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McKenna Melville’s 20/20 vs. Florida State

Volleyball

Photo: Noah Goldberg

Stats: 27 kills / 28 digs / 3 aces / .257 hitting pct

Melville had a career-high match with 27 kills, 28 digs, and three aces in leading UCF to a 5-set win over Florida State on September 10th. Melville would top that the following day against Georgia with 30 kills and 28 digs in a 5-set loss to Georgia.

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Brittany Floyd breaks 19-year-old school Heptathlon record

Track and Field

Stats: 5,643 points (13.99 seconds (100-meter hurdles, 3rd) / 1.63 meters (High Jump, T-3rd) / 10.99-meter (Shot Put, 3rd) / 24.75 seconds (200-meter dash, 2nd) / 6.13 meters (Long Jump, 1st) / 39.96 meters (Javelin Throw, 1st) / 2:17.51 (800-meter run, 1st))

Even during the Caryl Smith-Gilbert era, no heptathlete had ever gotten more than 5,000 points. After Jamie Pew set the record at 5,233 points in 2003, only one UCF heptathlete prior to the 2022 season even scored higher than the 5,000-point mark (Kelly Roloff, 2006).

This April, in her first heptathlon of the season, Brittany Floyd rode first-place finishes through the final four legs of the Hurricane Alumni Invitational’s heptathlon to demolish the program record with 5,643 points. At the time, that performance ranked fifth on NCAA outdoor performance list and would remain in the Top 25 until season’s end.

Not only did Floyd get the gold that day, but she took down a 19-year old program record and ultimately punched herself a ticket as UCF’s first Heptathlete to compete in the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships.

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Brittney Smith drops 26 points on Florida in NCAA 1st Round

Women’s Basketball

Stats: 11-15 for 26 points, six rebounds, and one steal in 24 minutes of play.

They say that the theme of the game show Jeopardy! lasts 30 seconds. In the time it takes to hum that tune twice, Brittney Smith just put points on you — At least that’s how it worked when Smith put up her career-high on what was the biggest win in program history to date against the Florida Gators.

In a performance that earned cemented the nickname “Brittney Buckets” on the national stage, her stat line was impressive, to say the least. But when one considers that head coach Katie Abrahamson Henderson pulled her to keep her rested for the game against UConn (and rightly so), it’s likely she would have likely broken 30. That fact demands this performance be a nominee.

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Rayniah Jones gets gold in all three of her events at the AAC Indoor Championship

Track and Field

Stats: 7.31 (60-meter dash), 23.35 (200-meter dash), 7.90 (60-meter hurdles)

After bursting onto the scene in the 2021 Outdoor season, Jones kept the momentum going through the indoor season to the AAC Conference Championship meet.

Jones swept the gold medals in all three of her events (the 60-meter dash, the 60-meter hurdles, and the 200-meter dash), getting 30 points for the Knights as they went on to win the AAC title.

Additionally, Jones’ 7.90-second time in the 60-meter hurdle final set the new program record in the event.

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Kama Woodall goes 11 innings vs. Michigan in the Orlando Regional

Softball

Stats: 181 pitches, 11 innings, 10 strikeouts, 2 runs, 1 earned. Win.

Kama Woodall's performance goes down as the most memorable in program history. Woodall tied a career-high in innings pitched and earned a new career-high in strikeouts while throwing 181 pitches in a 90-plus degree afternoon to earn the win to send the Knights to the regional final.

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Vote for who you think is the 2022 UCF Women’s Individual Performance of the Year below: