Northwestern University Athletics
Six Wildcats Earn All-Big Ten Honors
5/12/2005 12:00:00 AM | Softball
May 12, 2005
EVANSTON, Ill. -- It has been a record-breaking season for Northwestern softball, and now the awards are beginning to arrive in like fashion.
Sophomore Garland Cooper (Mission Viejo, Calif./Santa Margarita Catholic) has been named the Big Ten Player of the Year and joins five other Wildcats in earning All-Big Ten honors for the 2005 season.
Cooper, senior Erin Mobley (Santa Ana, Calif./Foothill), junior Courtnay Foster (Tucson, Ariz./Sahuaro) and freshman Stephanie Churchwell (Lake Forest, Calif./El Toro) all earned first-team accolades, while junior Jamie Dotson (Santa Ana, Calif./Foothill) and sophomore Eileen Canney (Paradise, Calif./Paradise) were tabbed for the second team.
Head coach Kate Drohan has also earned accolades, being named Co-Head Coach of the Year along with Michigan's Carol Hutchins.
Northwestern's four first-team selections tie NU's 1984 and 85 squads for the most in program history. They are second most this season to Michigan's five. NU's six total selections rank second to UM's eight.
Cooper, who led the Big Ten in batting average, slugging percentage and on-base percentage, is just the third Wildcat to be named Big Ten Player of the Year. Her .490 conference batting average is the second-highest in Big Ten history.
Lisa Ishikawa earned the honor in 1984 and 85, while Brooke Siebel got the nod in 2000.
Cooper's first-team accolade is the second of her career. She was named to the squad this season at first base after being named as a designated player last year.
Mobley's first-team honor is the third of her career. She joins Siebel and Ishikawa, who was a four-time first-teamer, as the only Wildcats to thrice be named to the Big Ten first-team.
Mobley is concluding her career ranked in the top-10 of 12 different offensive categories at Northwestern. She is the career record holder for runs scored and total bases.
Foster's first-team nod is the first of her career. She was a second-team honoree as a freshman in 2003. This season, she led the Big Ten with a 1.08 ERA in league contests.
Churchwell has had a phenomenal freshman season, breaking the Northwestern single-season records for hits and runs scored. She led the Big Ten during league games in those categories, and ranked second in the Big Ten in batting average during conference games, trailing only Cooper.
Dotson earns her first All-Big Ten honor after moving from first base to catcher this season. She broke the Wildcats' single-season record for RBIs this season, ranking second in the conference in the category.
Canney -- last year's Big Ten Freshman of the Year -- earns her second-consecutive second-team honor. She threw a perfect game in the Big Ten opener against Illinois, and had won 15-straight conference decisions dating back to last season before a loss to Michigan State on April 29.
Drohan is in her fourth year at the helm of the Northwestern program. She served as an assistant under the legendary Sharon J. Drysdale -- who was Big Ten Coach of the Year in 1984, 87 and 95 -- from 1998 until taking over the program in 2002.
Northwestern opened the Big Ten season with 14-straight wins, and finished second with a 15-3 record. The finish is NU's best since 1998.
The second-seeded Wildcats will open the Big Ten Tournament in Ann Arbor, Mich., at 4 p.m. CT Thursday against No. 7 Purdue.
