The 10th-ranked Case Western Reserve University softball team swept the University Athletic Association Player of the Year awards and totaled five All-UAA honors, including four First Team selections, as announced by the association on Monday.
Junior Lexi Miskey was named the Pitcher of the Year for the third consecutive season, senior Stevie Rieger earned Position Player of the Year honors, and first-year Karen Potts received Rookie of the Year accolades. All three were named to the All-UAA First Team, where they were joined by senior KaiLi Gross. Sophomore Elizabeth Berry received All-UAA Second Team honors to give CWRU a total of five conference honorees for the second consecutive year.
Miskey earned Pitcher of the Year honors for an unprecedented third time, the most of any player since the award was inaugurated in 2017. Her three career All-UAA First Team honors match a program-best with Gross and former Spartans Molly O'Brien, Becky Palmer, and Carla Kinyon. In conference play this season, Miskey went 9-1 in 16 appearances with a 2.19 earned run average and 1.06 WHIP. Opponents hit for a .186 average against her, and she compiled 77 strikeouts in 64 innings. Overall, Miskey is 19-3 with a 1.87 ERA and 164 strikeouts in 127 and one-third innings across 31 appearances.
Rieger's Position Player of the Year honor marks the second consecutive season a Spartan has won the award after Amanda Riely earned the honor in 2023. The All-UAA selection is the first of Rieger's career. In conference play, she led the CWRU offense with a .474 batting average and was second on the team with a .522 on-base percentage and third on the squad with a .702 slugging percentage. She hit two home runs and seven doubles, drove in 23 runs, scored 17 times, and stole 13 bases. Overall, Rieger has a team-high .430 batting average, four home runs, 38 runs batted in, and 22 steals.
Potts is the second UAA Rookie of the Year for Case Western Reserve softball over the last three seasons and fourth overall for the team. Miskey received the honor in 2022, and former Spartans Katie Wede (2015) and Rachel Komar (2013) were also Rookies of the Year. Potts has made her mark on the program since its first contest of 2024, starting every game for the Spartans at shortstop during the campaign. In conference play, she hit .441 and led the offense with a .554 on-base percentage and .831 slugging percentage. In 20 conference games, Potts slugged five home runs and six doubles, scored 27 times, drove in 14 runs, and stole 12 bases. Overall, she is second on the team with a 1.157 on-base plus slugging, reaching base in nearly half of her plate appearances.
Gross received an All-UAA First Team selection for the third year in a row. The conference's Sophomore Rookie of the Year in 2022, she is the fifth Spartan to earn three All-Association First Team honors. In league play, she tied for the team lead with five home runs and drove in a team-high 25 runs. She scored 20 times and recorded a .393 batting average, .466 on-base percentage, and .770 slugging percentage. This season, she is third on the team with a 1.127 OPS and has slugged a career high seven home runs. One of the most prolific hitters in program history, Gross became just the third player in program history to record at least 100 runs scored and 100 runs driven in, while also setting the program record for career stolen bases.
Berry earned her first career All-UAA honors with the Second Team selection this year. In conference play, she was third on the team with a .414 batting average, recording multiple hits in seven contests, and tied a program record with five hits against Brandeis on April 19. She scored 11 times, drove in 17 runs, and stole three bases. This season, Berry has a .385 batting average with 20 runs scored and 26 runs batted in. Defensively, she has committed just two errors, recording a .982 fielding percentage on 41 putouts and 68 assists.
The Spartans won their third consecutive UAA Championship with a 16-4 record in league play and secured the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Championship. It was the program's seventh conference championship, and the postseason appearance will be the team's fifth. Overall, the team is 32-6 and ranked second in Region VII in the latest NCAA Regional Rankings.
CWRU will close the regular season with a doubleheader against the University of Chicago on Saturday, May 11 starting at 1 p.m. at Mather Park. The team will learn its postseason destination and opponents on Monday, May 13 during the NCAA Division III Softball Selection Show, starting at 11 a.m. on ncaa.com.
