Northwestern University Athletics
Five Wildcats Garner All-Big Ten Accolades
5/18/2011 12:00:00 AM | Softball
May 18, 2011
Official Conference Office All-Big Ten Release (PDF Format) 
EVANSTON, Ill. -- Five Wildcats have been named All-Big Ten honorees in 2011 as chosen by a vote of the conference coaches. Sophomore Emily Allard (Antioch, Calif./Deer Valley) earned a first-team selection, junior Adrienne Monka (Rancho Cucamonga, Calif./Rancho Cucamonga), senior Robin Thompson (Detroit, Mich./Martin Luther King) and freshman Marisa Bast (Orange, Calif./Villa Park) were second-team picks and senior Jordan Wheeler (Garden Grove, Calif./Los Alamitos) picked up a third-team award.
Northwestern has had at least four players chosen as All-Big Ten selections in each of the last nine seasons. All-Big Ten voting is based solely on performances during conference play.
A second-team choice as a freshman in 2010, Allard stepped up to the first team in 2011 by batting .415 in Big Ten play and scoring 16 runs in 18 games. She swiped 17 bases in league games for the second-straight year, matching a total that is the fourth-highest in Big Ten single-season history. Allard is the first Big Ten student-athlete to steal that many bags since 1997, and now she has done it in back-to-back seasons.
Monka put up first-team caliber numbers at first base this year, earning a staggering Big Ten-best .735 on-base percentage with 36 walks, 12 of which were intentional. Monka received that respect after earning NFCA National Player of the Week honors during a sweep of Ohio State in which she drove in seven runs and batted 1.000 with a 2.333 slugging percentage. She concluded conference play with a .419 average and 17 RBIs in 18 games played while playing an error-less first base. Perhaps most impressive about Monka's Big Ten season was a string of 25-consecutive plate appearances across six games in which she reached first base successfully, comprised of seven hits, 14 walks and a hit by pitch.
Monka, the 2009 Big Ten Freshman of the Year, now is a three-time All-Big Ten selection after garnering a third-team accolade in 2010 on the heels of her first-team nod as a freshman.
Thompson earned the second All-Big Ten second-team honor of her career but her first since she batted right handed as a freshman in 2008. This season -- her third as a speedy lefty slapper -- Thompson led Northwestern with a .426 batting average in conference play, scoring 16 runs and driving in 10 while going a perfect 9-for-9 on the base paths.
Bast's debut season was a success in the conference. She batted .327 in Big Ten play with a team-best 18 RBIs in 17 games played, earning Big Ten Freshman of the Week honors after NU's sweep of Ohio State. Bast's biggest blow came on Senior Day May 8 against then-conference-leading Indiana when the freshman hit a late-game grand slam to give the Wildcats a 4-1 victory.
Wheeler put together the best season of her career as a senior, and it paid off with her first All-Big Ten selection. Wheeler batted .320 during Big Ten games, stringing together a career-best late-season 13-game hitting streak during which she hit .436.
The Big Ten also announced its 2011 Sportsmanship Award honorees from each school, with junior Olivia Zolke (Manhattan Beach, Calif./Mira Costa) earning the nod for Northwestern.
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