May 17, 2011
LAS VEGAS (UNLVRebels.com) - UNLV's Ashli Holland was named the Mountain West Conference's Softball Player of the Year, as selected by the league's six head coaches. Holland was joined by first-time selections Tayler Aleman, Paige Emerson and Tayler Van Acker on the All-MWC Team after the quartet helped the Rebels to a second-place finish in conference play with a record of 9-5.
Holland, a senior from Arvada, Colo., is just the second UNLV student-athlete (Geney Orris, 2002) to be awarded MWC Player of the Year. Overall, this is the sixth time that the UNLV softball program had one of its own named as the conference player of the year. Kim Rondina (1995 and '96), Cyndi Parus (1994) and Christine Parris (1991) were recognized by the Big West in the 1990s.
In the MWC's 12-year history, Holland is only the ninth player and first Rebel to be a four-time selection. She joins BYU's Ianeta Le'i (2003-06) and Angeline Quiocho (2007-10); Colorado State's Lauren Cusick (2005-08) and Jessica Strickland (2004-07); New Mexico's Kelly Glass (2000-03); San Diego State's Celena Velasquez (2003-06); and Utah's Niki Hayhurst (2000-03) and Diana Phillips (2005-08) on the exclusive list of four-year honorees.
Holland is just the fifth Rebel in program history to achieve all-conference honors (first or second team) for four years and teams with Lori Harrigan (Big West 1989-92), Tricia Reimche (Big West 1990-93), Parus ( Big West 1992-95) and Kim Rondina (Big West 1994-96, WAC 1997) on the distinguished list.
In league play, Holland started all 14 games at second base and owned a batting average of .356 with 16 hits, eight of which went for extra bases. She smashed a team-high four home runs and legged out four doubles, while knocking in 14 RBI and scoring 10 runs. She owned a .711 slugging percentage and .920 fielding percentage. Holland was named the conference's player of the week for the third time in her career on May 10 when she led UNLV to a two-game sweep of San Diego State behind a .778 batting average, seven hits, four home runs, nine RBI and five runs. Her five hits and 13 total bases in the May 7 affair were both UNLV single-game records. She notched one game-winning hit, a three-run walk-off home run against San Diego State (May 8).
Aleman, a sophomore from Las Vegas, started all 14 games at shortstop and led the team in RBI (17). She hit .405 on the year with 17 hits, four doubles and three home runs and contributed eight runs, as well. She had six multiple-hit games and registered at least one hit in 10 of the contests. She owned two four-game hitting streaks during league play that saw her hit .462 (6-for-13) and .571 (8-for-14) with seven RBI recorded in both. She owned two four-RBI games with the first occurring against Utah (April 15) and the second vs. Colorado State (May 12). She had two game-winning hits this past weekend against Colorado State with a sacrifice fly and a grand slam on May 12 and 13, respectively.
Emerson, a junior from Rocklin, Calif., was just recently named the league's player of the week after she extended her end-of-season hitting streak to eight games with three multiple-hit contests that helped UNLV to a 3-0 record in the final weekend of the regular season. She started all 14 games in center field and led the team in batting average (.520), hits (26) and runs (15). Overall, she had nine multiple-hit games and at least one hit in all but two outings. She also scored 15 runs and knocked in six RBI. She was a perfect 3-for-3 in stolen base attempts against the league's batteries.
Van Acker, a freshman from Anaheim, Calif., started all 14 games at first base and hit .351 with three doubles and one home run. She also contributed 14 RBI and six runs. She had a total of four multiple-hit games with a high of three against Colorado State (April 8). She had one game-winning hit when she hit a two-run walk-off against San Diego State (May 7).
BYU's Paige Affleck and Gordon Eakin were named the MWC's Pitcher and Coach of the Year, respectively, while San Diego State's Hayley Miles took home Freshman of the Year honors.
