Northwestern University Athletics
Cooper, Canney Earn Big Ten Weekly Accolades
4/18/2006 12:00:00 AM | Softball
April 18, 2006
EVANSTON, Ill. -- For the second time this season, juniors Garland Cooper (Mission Viejo, Calif./Santa Margarita Catholic) and Eileen Canney (Paradise, Calif./Paradise) have swept the Big Ten Player and Pitcher of the Week honors.
Cooper claimed Player of the Week accolades after hitting .727 (8-for-11) in four games, while scoring six times and driving in six runs with three doubles and two home runs. She began the week by going 1-for-2 with an RBI and a run scored in a midweek win over Illinois-Chicago.
In Friday's 8-0 victory over Indiana, Cooper was 2-for-3, ripping a double and scoring twice. She followed with another solid performance in Saturday's contest, batting 3-for-4 while tallying a home run and a double. Cooper also broke the Northwestern career total bases record (as a junior) in the 11-1 win. She closed out the weekend with her second-consecutive home run, while also adding a double against Purdue on Sunday.
Cooper now has an NU single-season record of 18 doubles, while also ranking 11th on the league's career home run list with 29. The Mission Viejo, Calif., native earns her fourth Big Ten weekly accolade and her third of this season.
Canney threw three-consecutive shutouts and averaged 14 strikeouts per seven innings last week to earn Pitcher of the Week honors. She opened with a three-hit, 10-strikeout performance in a five-inning 3-1 shutout over Illinois-Chicago last Tuesday.
Canney then allowed just two hits while fanning 11 in six innings of work against Indiana for the 8-0 triumph. The Paradise, Calif., native led the Wildcats to a 4-0 shutout over Purdue on Sunday, posting her second-best single-game strikeout total of her career with 15 K's.
Canney's honor is the fifth of her career. She was honored on March 20 of this year, while also collecting accolades in 2004 (April 26) and 2005 (Feb. 8 and April 4).
Northwestern now has a conference-best seven weekly awards in 2006, and impressively has earned every other Player of the Week honor handed out this season, with Cooper receiving the last three of NU's nods.
