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Seven Vikings Garner League Awards
May 7, 2008
Contact: Brian McCann
SKOKIE, Ill. - The Cleveland State softball team reaped the rewards of a championship season as six players received all-league mention and the Vikings claimed two of the four major awards at the annual Horizon League Championships Pre-Tournament Awards Banquet, which was held at the Doubletree hotel. Sophomore pitcher Amanda Macenko (Brunswick, OH) was named the Horizon League Pitcher of the Year while second year head coach Angie Nicholson shared league coach of the year accolades with Valparaiso's Randy Schneider. In addition, junior shortstop Christa Coppus (Tiffin, OH/Mohawk) and Macenko were named to the all-league first team with senior left fielder Whitney Willard (Nova, OH/Mapleton) and junior center fielder Danielle Young (Upper Sandusky, OH) being named to the second team. Freshmen Katelyn Ciminelli (St. Clair Shores, MI/Lakeview) and Amy Powell (Streetsboro, OH) were named to the all-newcomer team. "I am really happy for and proud of this team," Nicholson said. "We went into this season with one of our goals being to win the Horizon League regular season title and we have accomplished that. Tonight was about honoring our kids for having such an outstanding season. "But we aren't finished yet. Although the awards are nice, we still have one league title to win and we will be ready to go for it tomorrow when we play either Green Bay or Butler. If we don't play well during the next three days, than these awards won't mean as much." Macenko earned the honor after leading the Horizon League in nine of the 10 pitching statistics, including wins (24), ERA (1.41), strikeouts (243), innings pitched (243.0), games started (34), appearances (42), complete games (31), shutouts (7) and opposing batting average (.198). "Amanda has been outstanding all year long and she is truly deserving of this award," Nicholson said. "I've never met a pitcher like her. Not only does she want the ball in every game, she gets mad when she isn't on the mound. When she is pitching, she seems to get stronger as the game goes on." In just her eighth season as a head coach, Nicholson earns her third coach of the year award, previously being honored by the Ohio Community College Athletic Conference in both 2002 and 2004 while working at Cuyahoga Community College. She has a four year head coaching record of 105-77-1 at the Division I level, including a 62-30 mark in two seasons at CSU. "I knew when I hired her two years ago that Angie was going to take this program to a new level and lead us to championships," CSU Director of Athletics Lee Reed said. "It is exciting to see what she has accomplished in such a short time and I look forward to even bigger and better things in the future." Coppus earns all-league recognition for the third straight year, being named to the second team as a freshman in 2006 and the first team in each of the last two years. A starter in 145 straight games, she led the team in batting average (.373), hits (50), doubles (13) and RBI (25). Willard, a four-year starter, earns all-league honors for the third year as well. She was an all-newcomer team choice as a freshman in 2005 and a first team choice in 2006. She was third on the team with a .304 batting average, leading the squad in runs scored (28) and stolen bases (20), ranking second in RBI (23) and hits (48). Ranked third in school history with 74 stolen bases, she is only the second player to steal 20 or more bases in three consecutive seasons. Young was honored for the first time in her career after ranking second on the team with a .312 batting average. A starter in all 45 games, she was second on the squad in runs scored (26) and homeruns (4) and third in both hits (44) and RBI (22). Ciminelli, who has started 29 games this year mostly at first base, hit .267 (23-86) with two homeruns and 20 RBI. Powell has started 36 times, alternating between catcher and designated player, hitting .261 (24-92) with a team-best five homeruns. She drove in 12 and scored 10 times. The Vikings enter the Horizon League Championship as the top seed, playing the winner of the No. 6 Green Bay vs. No. 7 Butler game at 5:00 p.m. EDT on Thursday (May 8). The tournament continues through Saturday (May 10) with the championship game slated to begin at 6:00 p.m. 2008 Horizon League Softball Awards
Player of the Year: Jherica Williams, WSU First-Team All-League Second-Team All-League All-Newcomer Team
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