HOME Subscribe Today!
SEARCH: Go
Tri-County Citizen



Sports

PUBLISHED: Sunday, July 1, 2007
NL gals garner several individual honors after stellar softball season

McAllister named to All-State squad


The individual accolades flooded in for New Lothrop's varsity softball team after the Hornets turned in an outstanding 2007 campaign that included a district and regional title along with an impressive 32-8 record.

Advertisement

Veteran coach Jim Lahmann was named district and regional Coach of the Year while nine of his players landed on the All-District team. Four of those nine players went on to earn All-Region honors and senior outfielder Chelsea McAllister garnered All-State accolades. McAllister, along with fellow senior Nicole Ebenhoeh, was also named to the Academic All-State team.

McAllister led her hard-hitting team in several categories, leading the Hornets in batting average (.456), runs scored (57) and RBI's (50). She also tied for the team lead in hits (57), home runs (7) and stolen bases (11). McAllister, one of the team's three co-captains, was also a First-team All-Conference selection and was voted as the team's most valuable player. She finished the season with an unheard-of .768 slugging average.

Seniors Courtney Praski and Amanda Wendling and junior shortstop Kayla Gross were named to the All-Region team.

Praski batted a solid .410 and led her team in at-bats and doubles (11) while tying for the team lead in hits (57) and stolen bases (11). Praski was also a co-captain for the Hornets and she was named to the GAC-Blue First Team.

Wendling earned All-Region and All-Conference honors as a pitcher. Wendling finished the season with a 16-6 record, completing 20 of the 22 games she started. She notched a 2.11 ERA in 126 innings of work on the mound, striking out 200 batters while walking 38.

Gross was the team's shortstop, where she committed just 14 errors in 76 chances. Gross batted a solid .336 on the season and was also named to the GAC-Blue First Team.

Justine Vincke was the team's other co-captain and the hard-hitting senior third baseman pulled down First-Team All-District honors along with All-Conference honorable mention recognition. She tied for the team-lead in home runs with seven on the season.

Other Hornets who received post-season recognition were: senior catcher Nicole Ebenhoeh (First Team All-District and All-Conference), junior pitcher Kayla Knieper (First Team All-District and Second Team All-Conference), junior first baseman Danielle Birchmeier (First Team All-District) and sophomore outfielder Ashley Root (First Team All-District).

The Most Improved honors went to Amanda Lacy and the Team Spirit award was given to Kayla Knieper.

Coach Lahmann earned his district and regional honors as NL captured its sixth district title and fourth regional crown in his 17th season as Hornet head coach. Lahmann, whose 1982 squad captured a state championship, now owns an overall record of 364 wins against just 167 losses.

The 2007 Hornets hit a school-record 33 homers, finished second in the GAC-Blue behind Byron and reached the state quarterfinals before finally losing to eventual state champion Allen Park Cabrini. The team also was named Academic All-State and won the 2007 District Good Sportsmanship award.





TOP JOBS

TOP AUTOS

TOP HOMES

TOP RENTALS

TOP MERCHANDISE

Not all stories are guaranteed to appear online.
The Web edition contains a reasonable sampling of the print edition stories.
For the most complete news coverage, we invite you to subscribe to the print edition of the paper.