HITTERS OF THE WEEK
STEPHANIE DUNLAP, CHARLOTTE
Senior, 1B, Rohnert Park, Calif.
Dunlap helped the 49ers to five wins last week by going 12-for-20 (.600) en route to being named Hitter of the Tournament at the Charlotte Invitational. She had three doubles, four home runs and drove in nine runs, while scoring seven times.

MELISSA JACOBO, LOUISVILLE
Junior, 3B, Whittier, Calif.
Jacobo helped the Cardinals to a first place finish at the Missouri Softball Classic this past weekend and finished the week batting .565 (13-for-23) in eight games. She added a double, a triple, a home run and drove in 14 runs. In a 12-3 win over Drake, Jacobo hit a grand slam and drove in seven runs.

PITCHER OF THE WEEK
KERRI FOSTER, UAB
Junior, P, McCalla, Ala.
Foster helped the Blazers to the championship of the Magic City Classic this past weekend, picking up two wins in three appearances. In 16 innings pitched, she allowed just two runs and struck out 13, while walking only one. Foster has a a team-high six wins on the season with a staff low 1.11 ERA.


AROUND THE HORN

CHARLOTTE (12-8, 0-0): The 49ers went 5-2 last week to improve to 12-8 on the season. Charlotte posted back-to-back shutout victories over Radford (8-0) and Stony Brook (3-0) and has now registered five shutouts on the season. The Niners have four players that are hitting over .400 on the season. LEAH HESTON is the leader at .444 and she also tops the club in doubles (7) and RBI (22). STEPHANIE DUNLAP, this week's C-USA co-Hitter of the Week, is second at .410 with 19 RBI and AUTUMN LAWSON is batting .408. On the mound, BETSY THOMPSON has been credited with six of the club's 12 wins and has struck out 57 batters while walking only five.

DE PAUL (10-2, 0-0): The Blue Demons won all three games they played at the Georgia Tournament in Athens Mar. 1-3, scoring 27 runs in wins over College of Charleston, Birmingham Southern and Troy State. SHAUVAUGHNE DESECKI was 3-for-7 with a pair of doubles and three runs scored. SARAH MARTZ threw six innings of shutout ball against College of Charleston, allowing just three hits while striking out six. The Blue Demons return to action on Thursday when they compete in the Kia Classic in Fullerton, Calif.

EAST CAROLINA (14-7, 0-0): The Pirates posted three more shutout victories at the ECU Invitational last weekend. Ten of their 14 victories this season have been shutouts and they have allowed only five runs total in those 14 wins. Three of BETH BRIDGER's hits in the tournament went for extra bases, as she tripled twice and hit a home run. Bridger scored four runs and also walked four times. NICOLE BACON has been credited with eight of the Pirates wins this season after picking up victories over Fordham and Akron over the weekend. East Carolina will make its debut in league play when it travels to Louisville on Wednesday for three games.

HOUSTON (22-9, 2-1): Houston posted a 6-1 record at the Speedline Tournament in Plant City, Fla. this past weekend are have matched their entire victory total of the 2001 season. The second-year Cougar program posted a 22-33 record during its inaugural campaign last spring. KRISTEN GLOWACZ was 9-for-19 last week with three doubles, two home runs and eight RBI. She scored six runs last week and is now batting .320 for the season, while slugging .547. JENNY JOHNSON picked up two wins in the tournament, including a complete game effort against BYU. She struck out 17 batters in 10 1/3 innings, while walking only one. Sophomore pitcher JAMIE FALCO is 9-2 with a 1.00 ERA on the season with 69 strikeouts inn 76 innings pitched. The Cougars are batting .301 as a team, compared to .199 for their opponents.

LOUISVILLE (10-12, 0-0): The Cardinals won the Missouri Softball Classic this past weekend, posting a 4-2 record, including a pair of wins over host Missouri. Louisville pounded out 67 hits in the six games, led by MELISSA JACOBO, who had 12. She has reached base in 23 of her last 31 trips to the plate. In 18 games this season, Jacobo is hitting .467 with five home runs and 25 RBI. KEOLA CALDERON is second on the club at .366 with a team-leading seven doubles, three home runs and 17 RBI. JESSICA RAK was credited with four more wins last week. She has nine of the Cardinals 10 wins on the season.

SAINT LOUIS (10-1, 0-0): The Billikens played only two games last week, sweeping a doubleheader at Belmont on March 10, 8-0 and 12-5. Senior OF ERIN JEFFERY broke the SLU career hits record with a single in the top of the first inning against Belmont. The hit was the 144th of her career, surpassing the 143 by Dawn Elser and Missy Keim. JANET VENORSKY tied the single-game RBI record with four in the second game against Belmont. The Billikens set a school mark with five stolen bases against Belmont in game two. Freshman Adrienne May tied the school record with three swipes against the Bruins and Erin Jeffery added two. The six-game winning streak by the Billikens ties the longest in the program's history. The 1980 team also won six straight games.



SOUTH FLORIDA (8-20-1, 1-2): The Bulls went 1-4 at the Speedline Tournament, closing out the weekend with a 6-1 win over Northern Illinois. CORIN TASSIO threw a complete-game against NIU, allowing one run and scattering nine hits in picking up her second win of the season. RENEE OURSLER hit .364 (4-for-11) in the tournament with three doubles, a pair of RBI and four walks. She also stole four bases and scored three runs. HOLLY GROVES is the team's leading hitter at .314, while COURTNEY LEWELLEN leads the squad in doubles with nine and in RBI with 21.

SOUTHERN MISS (9-13, 0-0): The Golden Eagles had a difficult trip to the Lone Star State, dropping back-to-back doubleheaders to Texas A&M and the University of Texas. It marks the first time that Southern Miss has lost four in a row since opening the 2000 season at 0-4. ERINNE MILLIGAN batted 3-for-6 and CHRISSY KING was 2-for-4 at the plate on the weekend. In their last five games, the Golden Eagles have been outscored, 18-1.

UAB (15-7, 0-0): The Blazers won the Magic City Classic with a pair of wins over Samford and Birmingham-Southern, outscoring their opponents 13-3, including three shutouts. Sophomore BETH MULLINS hit her second home run of the year in Friday night's 3-0 win over Samford and added a pair of hits including a double in Saturday's 2-0 blanking of Birmingham-Southern. MEGAN STEPHENSON improved to 5-3 on the season with a complete-game, 10-strikeout performance with just four hits against Birmingham-Southern on Saturday.


PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
Each Monday during the season Conference USA names a Hitter of the week and a Pitcher of the Week. Here's a look at this season's winners:

HITTER OF THE WEEK
F11 Kristen Glowacz OF Houston
F18 Leah Heston 3B Charlotte
F25 Adrie Bogaars 3B/C Saint Louis
M4 Angie Manzo 3B East Carolina
M11 Stephanie Dunlap 1B Charlotte
Melissa Jacobo 3B Louisville

PITCHER OF THE WEEK
F11 Lindsay Chouinard LHP DePaul
F18 Jessica Rak RHP Louisville
F25 Lindsay Chouinard LHP DePaul
M4 Jessica Holaway RHP Southern Miss
M11 Kerri Foster RHP UAB