7Th Annual Most Important Moments in Sports and Athlete of the Year

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7th Annual Most Important Moments in Sports and Athlete of the Year

The Controversies and the Accomplishments that defined 2007 CONTENTS REAL SPORTS Collector’s Edition

7th Annual Most Important Moments in Sports

Keeping Women’s Sports in Focus

Best Athlete of 2007 Lorena Ochoa cements her place on the LPGA Tour and repeats as REAL SPORTS Best Athlete of 2007. 3 Most Important Moments in Sports 2007 was a year when athletes came clean, when controversies were what made the national media headlines, all while accomplishments stayed visible in the micro-markets of devoted sports fans. 4 – 9 Join the Team Team REAL SPORTS 9

REALSPORTSMAG.COM Vol. 10, No. 1-2, Dec ’07/Jan ‘08 Best Athlete of 2007 Cementing Her Position

The Real Sports Athlete of the Year award has gone to golfers for the last three years. Annika Sorenstam won the honor in 2005 but was eclipsed by fellow linkster Lorena Ochoa in 2006.

Ochoa racked up eight tournament victories on the LPGA Tour this year, including the British Open at St. Andrews, the Samsung World Championship and the ADT Championship, and became the first woman to earn over $4 million in a season.

Ochoa’s dominance in the sport secured her repeat selection as the Real Sports Athlete of the Year.

Athlete of the Year and Most Important Moments in Sports selections are determined by REAL SPORTS Editorial Board. WWW.REALSPORTSMAG.COM ** page 3 WWW.REALSPORTSMAG.COM ** Ochoa Lorena Courtesy: Photos 7th Annual Most Important Moments in Sports

#1O NCAA Division 1 Championships 2007 was a year replete with repeats. Northwestern won its third consecutive women's lacrosse national championship, joining Maryland as the only schools to win at least three straight titles. Maryland won seven championships in a row from 1995-01. The Pac-10 continued its dominance in softball, with the University of Arizona repeating as champs. The telecast of the deciding game of the 2007 NCAA Women’s College World Series between Arizona and Tennessee logged 1,676,000 households and a 1.8 rating, the most ever for a WCWS game.

ACC teams have won the field hockey title 10 of the last 12 years. Maintaining the ACC’s stranglehold, North Carolina claimed this year’s trophy. Penn State’s volleyball team, which last raised the championship trophy in 1999, left Stanford as the repeat runner up. The Nittany Lions lost only two games in six tournament matches. Bucking the trend, USC bagged the Pac-10’s first ever NCAA women’s soccer championship. UNC’s grip on the College Cup (18 titles) seems to be loosening; five different teams have won in the last seven years.

#9 Tennessee Earns 7th Basketball Title Okay, it’s still a D-1 NCAA championship, but the largest women’s college sports event deserves its own line item! This goes beyond repeats to dynasties… Pat Summitt is the all-time winningest D-1 hoops coach, consistently recruits a top-5 class, and is a fixture at the Final Four. It doesn’t hurt that the number one player in the country, Candace Parker, is on her roster. Parker picked up just about every player of the year award available - State Farm Wade Trophy, John R. Wooden, Honda Award, Basketball Writers Association – and was selected as WBCA/Kodak All-American, John R. Wooden All- American, Associated Press All-American, ESPN.com All-American, NCAA Final Four MVP, and SEC Player of the Year. 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