Six Lenoir-Rhyne Players Earn NFCA All-Southeast Region Honors In Softball
May 23, 2010
Three players named to the all-region first team
 Sophomore catcher Sarah Atkins was one of six L-R players to be named to the 2010 NCAA Division II Louisville Slugger/NFCA All-Southeast Region First and Second Teams. |
Starkville, Miss. - Six Lenoir-Rhyne University players were named to the 2010 Louisville Slugger/NFCA NCAA Division II All-Southeast Region Teams in softball. NFCA is the National Fastpitch Coaches Association.
Junior shortstop Kat Rivers (Royston, Ga.), sophomore catcher Sarah Atkins (Newport News, Va.) and senior outfielder Brittany Cherry (Myrtle Beach, S.C.) were selected to the first team while sophomore pitcher Dawon Millwood (Hixson, Tenn.), freshman pitcher Alex Smith (Cocoa, Fla.) and senior designated player Ashley Duckworth (Conover, N.C.) earned second-team honors.
Rivers, the 2010 Southeast Region Player Of The Year by Daktronics, finished the year with a team-leading .437 average and set a school single-season record for runs (65), hits (90), home runs (23), runs batted in (64) and total bases (179). Rivers is tied for the national lead in home runs and now holds the school record for career round-trippers with 35. Last month, Rivers was named South Atlantic Conference Player Of The Year.
Atkins finished third on the team in hitting (.355) this season to go along with 14 home runs and 63 runs batted in while being named a First-Team All-SAC pick for the second straight year and earning 2010 Food Lion SAC Tournament MVP honors.
Cherry, a three-time all-league honoree, also batted .355 while finishing second on the squad in hits (77) including a team-leading 23 doubles. Cherry leaves L-R as the school's all-time leader in hits (268) and doubles (62).
Millwood finished the year with a 21-4 mark to go along with a team-leading 1.97 earned run average, 197 strikeouts and 10 shutouts. Millwood has a combined 39-8 record the past two seasons in addition to earning All-South Atlantic Conference accolades in 2009 and 2010.
Smith, in her first season with the Bears, finished with a conference-leading 25-5 mark, a 2.05 earned run average and 116 strikeouts. Smith was named to the All-SAC Second Team last month.
Duckworth started all 62 games as the squad's designated player and finished with 18 home runs, second-best on the team, and 49 runs batted in.
All six players earned Daktronics All-Southeast Region honors last week for the Bears.
Lenoir-Rhyne finished the year with a 53-9 mark and set a school record for victories in a season. L-R also won the 2010 South Atlantic Conference Regular and Tournament Championships and advanced to the NCAA Division II Southeast Super Regional Tournament.
2010 Louisville Slugger/NFCA
NCAA Division II All-Southeast Region Teams
First Team
P - Sarah Phillips, North Georgia
P - Sarah DeMuth, Augusta State
C - Sarah Atkins, Lenoir-Rhyne
1B - Katherine Martin, North Georgia
2B -Laura Voyles, North Georgia
3B - Jelena Shaw, UNC Pembroke
SS - Kat Rivers, Lenoir-Rhyne
OF - Lauren Dykes, North Georgia
OF - Brittany Cherry, Lenoir-Rhyne
OF - LaRonda McClain, Wingate
DP - Leslie Smith, North Georgia
UT/P - Shelby Duff, Armstrong Atlantic State
UT/NP - Larissa Shannon, Erskine
Second Team
P - Dawon Millwood, Lenoir-Rhyne
P - Alex Smith, Lenoir-Rhyne
P - Amanda Huckestein, Newberry
C - Rocky Hemmer, Columbus State
1B - Courtney Davis, Erskine
2B - April Jowers, Armstrong Atlantic State
3B - Bailee Temples, Armstrong Atlantic State
SS - Jessie Howard, Carson-Newman
OF - Pilar Harden, North Georgia
OF - Aissa Gatewood, Newberry
OF - Kristen Jones, Augusta State
DP - Ashley Duckworth, Lenoir-Rhyne
UT/P - Michaela Wolf, Francis Marion
