SUNY Cortland Athletics

Julie Gentner Murphy is one of the best players in the history of both the Cortland field hockey and softball programs.

The Williamsville, N.Y., native earned three All-America honors and was the 2001 NCAA Division III Player of the Year as a field hockey forward. The two-time SUNYAC Player of the Year helped Cortland win the 2001 national title, and she still ranks second in school history with career totals of 63 goals and 37 assists and third with 163 total points. She set a school single-season record as a senior with 64 points. Her teams advanced to at least the NCAA quarterfinals in each of her four seasons.

A three-time All-America softball shortstop, Murphy was a career .401 hitter and presently ranks first at Cortland with 58 doubles and 139 runs batted in and third with 224 hits. She earned two Academic All-America awards and was a four-time All-SUNYAC selection. As a senior in 2003, she set a school record with 18 doubles and helped Cortland tie for fifth nationally at the NCAA Division III World Series.

Murphy graduated in 2003 with a bachelor’s degree in sport management and a minor in economics. Since leaving Cortland, she has been a certified financial planner at L&M Financial Services in Amherst, N.Y., where she is a four-time Masters Prudential Council Award winner. Murphy ranks in the top five percent of Securities America Advisors nationally.

Murphy also coaches varsity softball at Williamsville South High School, her alma mater. She coached alongside her father, Gerry Gentner ’66 – a former standout athlete at Cortland – from 2008 until he passed away in January 2012, and she has continued on as the program’s head coach. The program won Class A sectional titles in both 2010 and 2011.

As the chairman of SUNY Cortland’s Gerry Gentner Memorial Western New York Alumni Golf Tournament, Murphy helps raise money each year for a Western New York Cortland student. She also chairs the “Just Show Up” Gerry Gentner Memorial Softball Tournament in her father’s honor. In addition, Murphy is an accomplished golfer who was named both the 2010 and 2013 Buffalo District Golf Association’s Women’s Player of the Year. She’s a five-time Brookfield Country Club champion, was a top-10 finisher at the 2013 New York State Women’s Amateur Championship, and was the 2013 Buffalo District Golf Association Player of the Year.