NSIC RELEASE
BURNSVILLE, Minn. - The Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference announced Friday that seven from Augustana have been named to the 2011 All-NSIC team, and
Gretta Melsted has been named the 2011 NSIC Coach of the Year.
Jenny Brown,
Traci Fransen and
Ashley Meyer landed on the first team, while
Theresa McMahon,
Lindsay Spanton,
Elizabeth Murray and
Kelsey Kalkman were named to the second team.
Brown, a sophomore left fielder from Omaha, Neb., leads the Vikings and is among the top in the NSIC with a .426 batting average. Brown has had just six strike outs and 13 walks to also lead the team with a .473 on base percentage. She has stolen a team-high 10 bases.
A senior third baseman from Jackson, Minn., Fransen has accumulated more RBIs than any other player in the NSIC with 59. She has also blasted 35 career home runs to reset the Viking record earlier this season. Fransen has smashed 11 homers and 15 doubles and has scored 48 runs while also ranking among the top on the team in total bases (111) and assists (114).
Meyer is a junior from Rapid City, S.D., and has one of the best ERAs in the NSIC at 1.03. She has made 30 appearances in the circle and pitched 176.2 innings. The right-hander has racked up 23 wins and has held opponents to a .224 batting average in 2011. Meyer has struck out 180 batters and has pitched 10 complete shutouts this season.
Slugging .714 and playing in the outfield is McMahon, a sophomore from Hartford, S.D. She leads Augustana in home runs (15), total bases (125) and runs scored (50). McMahon has smashed 12 doubles and is batting .389 with 68 hits. She has drove in 44 runs.
Spanton, a native of Apple Valley, Minn., has a perfect fielding percentage with 75 putouts and two assists. The freshman is batting .398. She is slugging .692 with 12 doubles, nine homers and 42 RBIs.
Murray is a junior catcher from Cottage Grove, Minn. She is batting .365 with 54 hits, 12 doubles and eight home runs.
Kalkman, an infielder from Carver, Minn., has belted 10 home runs and six doubles this season. She is slugging .560 and batting .320 with 39 RBIs.
Melsted was voted by her peers as the Coach of the Year after leading Augustana to the NSIC regular-season championship with a 22-3 NSIC record. This marks the third consecutive season Melsted has earned the honor after she led the Vikings to a regular season championship last year and a second-place finish two years ago. The Vikings are 44-7 overall on the season and have climbed all the way to No. 8 in the nation in the National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) Division II Top-25 Poll.
Augustana faces the winner of No. 13 Minnesota State and Wayne State at noon Saturday in the finals of the NSIC Tournament at Bowden Field in Sioux Falls, S.D.
