SAN RAFAEL, Calif. — The 2012-13 Dominican University of California athletics season was a historic one. The Penguins' student-athletes moved toward a new era — and arena — of competition with the unveiling of the John F. Allen Athletics Complex featuring a multi-purpose synthetic turf field at Jerry Kennelly Field and six new tennis courts in the Tony Castellucci Family Tennis Center. Plus, Dominican named a new Director of Athletics — Brandon Leimbach, who was associate athletics director at Colorado School of Mines the past five years.

New playing facilities and leadership provided a bright outlook and newfound success for the Penguins.

In the spring Dominican's men's lacrosse team won its first-ever team championship with a school record-breaking season in the Western Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association. Freshman Cody Bernstein led the WILA in points.

In the fall, Dominican men's soccer team was unbeaten in its last five games and finished the season with its first winning season as a member of the NCAA Division II and the Pacific West Conference. Senior forward Pedro Guevara, a psychology major, was named Capital One Academic All-America First Team and third team Daktronics All-American. Guevara was named Dominican's Male Student-Athlete of the Year for the third time.

Meanwhile, led by two-time Dominican Female Student-Athlete of the Year Julianna Bratsberg, the women's soccer team had its first winning season in PacWest play. Junior goalkeeper Megan Herring led the nation in NCAA Div. II in saves percentage (.910) and Lauren Gollnick was named PacWest Freshman of the Year.

The women's tennis team posted its best overall record since joining NCAA Div. II, including a Feb. 10 victory over nationally-ranked Cal State Stanislaus.

Men's basketball qualified for the inaugural PacWest Men's Basketball Championships as the fourth seed in the 14-team league with both its best conference record and overall record since joining NCAA Division II. Booker T. Harris was named Co-PacWest Coach of the Year.

Women's basketball played stronger down the stretch and Dominican's women's volleyball team notched its best league and overall record since joining NCAA Div. II.

The golf and softball programs are on the upswing. All of Dominican's 12 intercollegiate sports, in fact, showed marked improvement. Men's cross country runner Justin Valdez, a junior nursing major, was named to the 2012 Division II All-Academic Cross Country team by the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association. Valdez placed first among collegiate runners at the Bronco Invitational Open 8K race at Santa Clara University.

Now Dominican is aiming to duplicate its success in the classroom. Its school year began when, in July of 2012, Dominican was named for the third year in a row the recipient of the PacWest Conference Academic Achievement Award, this time sharing the honor with Grand Canyon University. The Penguins' student-athletes' combined 3.26 grade point average was its highest in those three years.

In addition, Dominican placed 101 of its student-athletes on the PacWest Academic All-Conference announced in August of 2012, and nine lacrosse players were named to the 2012 WILA All-Academic Team.

Here is a list of the individual award winners as newcomer of the year, coaches award winner, and most outstanding player in each of Dominican's 12 intercollegiate sports for the 2012-13 season as announced by Dominican coaches at a season-ending barbecue on April 28:

2012-13 Male Student-Athlete of the Year: Pedro Guevara, Men's Soccer
2012-13 Female Student-Athlete of the Year: Julianna Bratsberg, Women's Soccer
2012-13 Senior Male Scholar-Athlete of the Year: Casey Gibson, Men's Soccer
2012-13 Senior Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year: Ariana Paradis, Women's Tennis
2012-13 Junior Male Scholar-Athlete of the Year: Austin Franks, Men's Lacrosse
2012-13 Junior Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year: Kaitlynn Baptista, Women's Soccer

Men's Soccer
Newcomer: Swap Mushiana
Coaches: David Mendez
Most Outstanding Player: Pedro Guevara

Women's Soccer
Newcomer: Lauren Gollnick
Coaches: Emily Whitaker
Most Outstanding Player: Julianna Bratsberg

Women's Volleyball
Newcomer: Sari Kwan
Coaches: Katy Batchelder
Most Outstanding Player: Jessica Jones

Men's Cross Country
Newcomer: Josef Baylis
Coaches: Kevin So
Most Outstanding Player: Justin Valdez

Women's Cross Country
Newcomer: Nicole Long
Coaches: Kendra Woodglass
Most Outstanding Player: Ally Rosemond

Men's Basketball
Newcomer: Devin Golston
Coaches: Ricky Wofford
Most Outstanding Player: Jammall Clark

Women's Basketball
Newcomer: Salonika Quewon-Owens
Coaches: Kimi Nakamura
Most Outstanding Player: Stephanie Carnes

Men's Golf
Newcomer: Pomi Milton
Coaches: Joey Saad
Most Outstanding Player: Kevin Santos

Women's Golf
Newcomer: Corrine Ow
Coaches: Haley Caruthers
Most Outstanding Player: Isabelle Salcedo

Lacrosse
Newcomer: Cody Bernstein
Coaches: Cam Evangelho
Most Outstanding Player: Sean Donohue

Softball
Newcomer: Tori Johnson
Coaches: Dominique Perry
Most Outstanding Player: Kayla Rodriguez

Women's Tennis
Newcomer: Emily Prescott
Coaches: Gaby Verspieren
Most Outstanding Player: Ariana Paradis