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KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Defending national champion California Baptist has been tabbed as the No. 1 team in the NAIA Softball Coaches’ Top 25 Preseason Poll, the NAIA announced Tuesday. The Lancers were the unanimous pick, earning all 23 first-place votes and tallying 653 points. Dickinson State (N.D.) is listed second with 629 points. Oklahoma City and Point Loma Nazarene (Calif.) are tied for third with 594 points and Lubbock Christian rounds out the top-five teams with 549 points.
No. 1 California Baptist returns 12 starters from its 2009 national championship team, including 2009 NAIA Pitcher of the Year, Tory Ferreira. Ferreira became the first pitcher in NAIA history to go undefeated and have at least 20 wins, as a freshman. The 2009 NAIA National Championship MVP Ashley Boyd returns for her senior season. The senior shortstop set school single-season records for home runs (16), hits (100), runs scored (82) and total bases (178). The Lancers finished last season with a school record 61 wins, on their way to winning the school’s first softball championship.
No. 22 Auburn Montgomery (Ala.), No. 23 Savannah College of Art and Design (Ga.) and No. 25 McKendree (Ill.) all make an appearance in the poll after finishing the 2009 season unranked.
Four conferences, Golden State Athletic Conference, Sooner Athletic Conference, Southern States Athletic Conference and Association of Independent Institutions, each have three teams listed in the initial poll for the 2010 season.
The poll was voted upon by a panel of head coaches representing each of the conferences. The first regular-season poll will be announced on March 23. Dickinson State Favored in DAC Softball Poll
--Courtesy Dakota Athletic Conference
(Dickinson, ND) – Following their third place finish in the 2009 NAIA National Tournament, Dickinson State is the choice to capture the conference title in the 2010 Dakota Athletic Conference Softball Coaches’ Preseason Poll.
The Blue Hawks, under first year head coach Kristen Fluery, picked up six first place votes to top the balloting. Jamestown College received the final first place vote to finish second. Minot State placed third. Valley City State, who had their 2009 season shortened due to flooding, finished fourth with Black Hills State, Dakota State and Mayville State rounding out the poll.
The first games of the 2010 season are scheduled for February 27 with the first conference games slated for March 20.
The poll was conducted by the Dakota Athletic Conference. DSU Softball Extends Thanks to All Well-Wishers
The Dickinson State University softball team was met with a tragic loss this fall. Three lives were cut short--Afton Williamson, Kyrstin Gemar and Ashley Neufeld--in an accidental drowning when the vehicle they were in on a night of stargazing, plunged to the bottom of a livestock pond. The reverberations coursed through the DSU community: coaches, players, former players, students and family.
It turns out however, that the Dickinson State family is much greater than anyone might have supposed. Head Coach Kristin Fleury, who also played at DSU and is now in her fifth year with the program, has been deluged with cards, emails, text messages, flowers and plants, monetary donations, equipment. The list goes on and on and is still growing. Coach Fleury has a box of mail in her office that is overflowing. “Thanks from all of us, thanks so much to everyone; your support has been incredible,” Coach Fleury effused.
The pieces have arrived from New York to California, Florida to Seattle and, it seems, every state and hamlet in between. The support gained by this outreach had its immediate effect, but it has also accomplished a lot in terms of helping the Blue Hawk softball team stay united and be able to withstand all forthcoming uncertainties as a team.
“We are all amazed,” Coach Fleury added. “The close-knit softball community, and in fact, athletic community at all levels, has been incredibly supportive and sensitive (One of the well-wishes came from a 10 year-old-and-under club team, while many others came from athletic programs outside of softball.). We have well over 500 cards, many of them hand-crafted and they have come from grandparents and aunts and uncles--not just players and coaches.”
There have been fundraisers in town too. The DSU cross-country team organized a 5K run and there was a benefit breakfast held at Sanford’s restaurant. To date, the funds raised have exceeded $10,000 and the money has been redirected by request of the victims’ families into, what is hoped to become, a scholarship fund in perpetuity for future Blue Hawk softball players.
“Healing is a long and difficult process; with the unbelievable support that our team has received, we have stayed together as sisters and are closer than before, closer than I could have ever imagined,” Coach Fleury continued.
The 2010 season begins on March 12 in Tucson, Ariz., and is still two months away, but thanks to the overwhelming support, the Blue Hawks softball team will be strong enough to move forward. The players may have a lump in their throats and heavy hearts, but eventually they will be able to respond to the familiar announcement of spring: Play Ball!
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