The results are in from the quarterfinal round of voting for the Best of Valpo Athletics 2015-2016 bracket, and the Crusader fans have spoken. The final four which will face off include two Horizon League title wins, a deep postseason run and an individual effort that ranks among the top single-game performances in program history.

Men's basketball run to the NIT title game - Mar. 15-31, 2016

- Having been left out of the NCAA Tournament field, there would be no malaise from the Valpo men’s basketball team as it took to the court for the NIT. It started innocuously enough with a win over Texas Southern. Then came a rare visit from a power-conference school to the ARC – a wire-to-wire win over Florida State. The quarterfinals saw the Crusaders provide a defensive show for a record-setting crowd at the ARC, as Valpo limited Saint Mary’s to just 13 second-half points in a 60-44 win to punch its ticket to New York City. Playing at historic Madison Square Garden, the Crusaders rebounded after surrendering a 16-point lead in the second half, getting the go-ahead 3-pointer with 17 seconds remaining from David Skara in a 72-70 victory over BYU. The run came up one win shy of the NIT title, but along the way, the team won four postseason games for the first time in program history and capped a season where it won a program-record 30 games.

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Softball goes 4-0, wins the Horizon League Championship - May 11-14, 2016

- In eighth place with eight days to go in the regular season, needing a win on the final day of the regular season just to secure a spot in the tournament. But once it got to the Horizon League Championship, the Crusader softball team more than proved it belonged. The sixth-seeded Crusaders rolled through the first three days of the tournament, out-scoring Youngstown State 10-6 before Taylor Weissenhofer tossed back-to-back shutouts versus Wright State and UIC to advance to Championship Saturday. It looked like the tournament was destined for a winner-take-all game, as Valpo trailed 4-0 entering the bottom of the seventh inning to Wright State in the first title game. But the improbable run was missing just an improbable rally, as the Crusaders pushed across four runs to force extra innings and earned the walk-off tournament championship in the bottom of the eighth. Sam Stewart was named Tournament MVP, while Weissenhofer – who pitched all but two outs over the four games – was named Pitcher of the Championship and Lanie Callaghan was named Batting Champion.

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Alec Peters (men's basketball) at Detroit - Jan. 10, 2016

- The feeling it might be a special day on the court for Alec Peters took hold early on at Detroit, as he scored 10 points inside of the first five minutes. And it would turn out to be a career day for the junior. Peters scored 25 first-half points and then scored 14 more in the game’s final nine minutes, setting a new career high with 39 points on 12-of-20 shooting in the Crusader victory. The 39 points is tied for seventh-most in a single game in Valpo history, while Peters also went 11-of-11 from the foul line – the best performance by a Crusader at the stripe in 18 years. Not to be overlooked was his work on the glass, as Peters grabbed a then-career best 14 rebounds.

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Men's tennis wins the Horizon League Championship - Apr. 30-May 1, 2016

- The Crusader men’s tennis team felt it had unfinished business after losing last year’s Horizon League title match to Green Bay, and after winning the 2016 regular season title and easily dispatching Cleveland State in the league tournament semifinals, faced off once again with the Phoenix with the league championship on the line. Wins at first and second doubles gave Valpo the 1-0 lead, and Jeffrey Schorsch and Charlie Emhardt earned straight-set wins to move the Crusaders to the brink of the title. It would be Garrett Gardner who rallied for a three-set win at fifth singles to clinch the title – Valpo’s first tournament title since joining the Horizon League and assuring the team it’s first-ever berth in the NCAA Tournament.