For the second consecutive year, the Tennessee Tech University team is the recipient of the Ohio Valley Conference Team Sportsmanship Award for women's golf.

Voted on by the student-athletes and coaches of the sport, the team award is bestowed upon the Conference squad deemed to have best exhibited the standards of sportsmanship and ethical behavior as outlined by the OVC and NCAA. Included in the areas for evaluation are the conduct of student-athletes, coaches, staff and administrators and fans.

"The OVC places high value on sportsmanship and ethical conduct," said Dr. Jon A. Steinbrecher, OVC Commissioner. "Our awards acknowledge excellence and are special because it is recognition that comes from one's peers."

Tennessee Tech finished sixth at the OVC Women's Golf Championship in 2008. The Golden Eagles were led by junior Ashley Spangler, who placed 12th overall, nine strokes off the individual lead. She finished the 54-hole event with a hole-in-one on the final hole.

"The real test of sportsmanship is a positive attitude and the desire to keep going even in the most difficult of times," said Tennessee Tech assistant coach Kylie Crouch. "This team continued to strive for excellence while reflecting on the skills and compassion Coach Nichols taught them. Bobby Nichols' life reflected exemplary sportsmanship. He would be proud!"

The 2007-08 school year marks the third year the team sportsmanship honors have been awarded.

"Winning the OVC Sportsmanship Award is a real tribute to the young women who are members of our golf program," said TTU Director of Athletics Mark Wilson. "This was a difficult year for all of them as they coped with the illness and the passing of their coach, Bobby Nichols. He was not only their coach, but also a teacher and a friend, and it was tough for them, but they handled everything with dignity and showed outstanding character, as well as tremendous sportsmanship.

"Those are traits that coach Nichols helped to instill in the student-athletes in his golf program, and it's nice that they were recognized for that," Wilson said. "Good sportsmanship was always one of coach Nichols' primary goals for his players, and he would be extremely proud of this award."

Implemented in August 2005, the team honors are the most recent addition to an awards program that recognizes and celebrates sportsmanship within the Conference. In 1998, the league established the Steve Hamilton Sportsmanship Award, presented annually to a male or female student-athlete of junior or senior status who best exemplifies the characteristics of the late Morehead State student-athlete, coach and administrator. Five years later, the Conference added the OVC Sportsmanship Award, presented annually to the member institution selected by its peers to have best exhibited the standards of sportsmanship and ethical behavior as outlined by the OVC and NCAA.

In 1995, the Ohio Valley Conference implemented a first-of-its-kind "Sportsmanship Statement," a policy promoting principles of fair play, ethical conduct and respect for one's opponent. The statement answered the challenge of the NCAA Presidents Commission to improve sportsmanship in collegiate athletics, and has become a model for others to follow across the nation.