SFA Tabbed As Preseason Favorite
1/22/2009 12:00:00 AM | Softball
Jan. 22, 2009
FRISCO, Texas - A year after posting the program's best season in 18 years, the Stephen F. Austin softball team is picked to win the Southland Conference championship in 2009. The Ladyjacks were the top choice in preseason polling of both league coaches and sports information directors, announced by SLC officials Thursday. In addition, three Ladyjacks have been named to the Preseason All-SLC Teams.
SFA took seven of 11 first-place votes in the coaches' poll to finish with 104 total points. Texas State, last year's regular-season champion, ranks second with 98 points and two first-place nods. UTSA and UT-Arlington followed in third and fourth with each picking up a first-place vote.
In polling of sports information directors, the Ladyjacks took five first-place votes and tallied 108 total points. Texas State again trailed with three first-place votes and 96 points, and UTSA ranked third with a pair of first-place nods. Sam Houston State finished in the fourth slot, one point behind the Roadrunners with 83 points.
The Ladyjacks' strong preseason outlook is based largely on the fact that SFA brings back all but one starter from last year's 36-25 NCAA Tournament team. Three of those returners -- Kendal Harper, Monika Covington and Kim Daley -- are on the 2009 Preseason All-SLC Teams.
Harper, a junior outfielder, was named to the first team after leading the SLC in stolen bases last season with a school-record 28 thefts. Harper was the Ladyjacks' top bat, posting a .385 average, and finished second in the conference in runs scored with 43.
Covington joins Harper on the first team. The sophomore pitcher is coming off an SLC Freshman of the Year campaign. As a rookie, she was second in the league in earned run average at 1.34 and led the conference in innings pitched (244.2), strikeouts (270) and wins (20). Covington went 20-14 on the season.
Daley, a senior catcher, hit .205, drove in 30 runs and finished fifth in the SLC with 13 doubles. She was also second in the league in runners picked off with two and threw out 10 runners attempting to steal.
In their second season under head coach Gay McNutt, the Ladyjacks are looking to build on a strong 2008 campaign. SFA's 36 wins last season are the third-most recorded by an SFA team since joining the Southland Conference in 1988, and the Ladyjacks posted the program's first winning season since 2000. SFA reached the SLC Tournament for the first time since 1990 and won three straight games to take the tourney title and earn the program's first trip to the NCAA Division I Championships.
The Ladyjacks open the 2009 season on Feb. 6, when they take on Iowa in their opener at the Time Warner Cable Texas Invitational.
-- SFA --
