ROCK HILL, SOUTH CAROLINA – Retired Winthrop University men's and women's tennis coach Cid Carvalho `82 `89 and former Winthrop volleyball player Mary Hock Leventis ’06 will be inducted into the Big South Conference Hall of Fame on March 6.
Carvalho and Hock Leventis will join Radford's Duane Filchner of baseball and Campbell's John Payne of men's soccer as the four selections for this year’s class.
They will be officially inducted during a special March 6 morning ceremony at the BOplex in Charlotte, North Carolina, prior to the finals of the Hercules Tires Big South Basketball Championships.
The Big South Hall of Fame, created in 2003 as part of the League’s 20th Anniversary celebration, now totals 77 former Big South Conference student-athletes, coaches, administrators and contributors with the addition of this year’s class.
Learn more about Carvalho and Hock Leventis:
Cid Carvalho, men’s and women’s tennis coach, 1986-2019
Carvalho retired in 2019 with 26 combined Big South Championship titles -- a record 21 on the women's side and record-tying five on the men's side. He is the all-time leader in wins in Big South history in both sports, and recorded the most conference tournament wins in Big South tennis history with 63 women's victories and 36 men's wins.
Carvalho coached men's and women's tennis for decades before moving to coach only the women's team in summer 2011. He guided the women's program to 17 NCAA Tournament appearances, including the conference's first postseason victory in tennis when the Eagles defeated 20th-ranked Auburn. In addition, he was voted the Big South Women's Tennis 1990-99, 2000-09, and 2010-19 All-Decade Team head coach.
Carvalho coached the program's and Big South's first female to compete in singles and doubles at the NCAA Tournament (Lauren Procter - singles and doubles / Megan Kauffman doubles). Both Proctor and Kauffman were named ITA All-Americans to become just the second and third women's tennis All-Americans in Big South history.
He had more than 300 wins with the men's program and a total of 430 with the women's team. Carvalho was inducted into Winthrop's Athletics Hall of Fame in 2020.
Mary Hock Leventis, volleyball, 2002-05
Hock Leventis was the Big South's first volleyball All-American, as she was bestowed Honorable Mention honors by American Volleyball Coaches Association in 2004. Voted to the Big South Volleyball 2000-09 All-Decade Team, Hock Leventis was named among the Big South's 25th Anniversary "Best of the Best" celebration honorees in 2008-09.
She was a four-time Big South Conference Champion and NCAA Tournament participant in 02-05, was a three-time All-Conference First-Team selection in 2003, 2004 and 2005, and was the Big South Player of the Year in 2004. Hock Leventis ranks first all-time in Big South history with 2,067 career kills (one of two all-time with 2,000 or more kills), first all-time with 0.71 career aces per set, and first all-time in the conference record book with 360 career service aces -- 131 more than second-place. In addition, she is fourth for career kills per set (4.07) and tied for seventh all-time with 508 career sets played.
Hock Leventis was on the coaching staff of Winthrop's 2006 Big South Championship team and returned to Winthrop's coaching staff in 2010, coaching three more seasons. She was named to the American Volleyball Coaches Association 30 under 30 in 2011-12, and was inducted into the Winthrop Athletics Hall of Fame in 2014.
For more information, contact Brett Redden, athletics' director of communications, at reddenb@winthrop.edu.
