Utah Valley University women’s softball team has had an exciting close to a great season as they won their very first Great West Conference championship in UVU history with a 3-1 victory against tournament champions Houston Baptist.
Going into the GWC with a one-loss bracket and a 3-2 loss to HBU, the Wolverines persevered their way back into the championship game with a 5-4 victory over Nebraska, Omaha, winning it all.
“We’ve came up second place all these years and that’s tough,” head coach Todd Fairbourne said. “We have kind of learned from coming up short but this year we were able to regroup ourselves. We believed that we were the best team in the Great West.”
UVU proved to themselves and the program that they were the best in the West as they ended the overall season 33-28-1
“All we needed was fight, and we showed that the whole season,” said sophomore Amanda Robinson. “The next day was win or go home basically, but our team had a lot of fight and we came back to win it all.”
Not only was Robinson named tournament MVP for her three doubles, two home runs, four RBI’s and seven run scoring in the five game tournament, but she was able to beat the UVU home run record.
Robinson ended the season scoring 13 runs during the conference play, respectively passing teammate Amanda Perez’s record of 12 runs in 2010. Along with Robinson’s MVP title, teammate and junior Tiffany Mills was also recognized and named top pitcher of the tournament.
“[Amanda] goes out there and battles,” said Fairbourne. “Holy cow, she came out like game-busters and just went ballistic down there. She absolutely dominated with Krystin Jachim right behind her.”
With the whole team stepping up to the plate and giving it there all, Coach Fairbourne had nothing but confidence in the Wolverines capability to do their best in the GWC making it their best ball of the year.
“I think a lot of it is a united effort,” said Fairbourne. “I wanted the girls to see and believe what I saw they were capable of, but they had to go out and do it … they responded and played to a higher level.”
Although the Wolverines had a rough start to the season, they pushed through with confidence and potential to where they were able to seal the deal with their first ever GWC championship. The team looks forward to bigger and better things and expects more from themselves in the upcoming season with hopes to repeat another championship victory.
“I think once you win it, then you have to keep repeating and winning,” said Robinson. “If we come short, then it will be a letdown. We need to lay down the goals early that this is what we expect and this is what we need to do to win a championship again.”
By Rachel Anderson
Sports Writer
