Northwestern College softball player Gwen Mikkelsen has been named the NAIA Player-of-the-Week for her performance at the American State Bank Sports Complex this past weekend in Sioux Center. The junior from Casa Grande, Arizona, hit a blistering .667 (10-for-15) in wins over Dakota State, Bellevue, Avila and Waldorf. Mikkelson hit two home runs against Dakota Stateand drove in seven runs in the four wins. She now has a team-best .413 batting average. She is the first Raider to be the national Player-of-the-Week since Lexi Determan was named the Pitcher-of-the-Week on April 30, 2008.
Northwestern swept the weekly GPAC awards. In addition to Mikkelson taking the player-of-the-week honors, Kamryn Etherington is the conference’s pitcher-of-the-week. The junior from Algona tossed two complete game shutouts over the weekend. She also struck out 22 while allowing just five hits in the victories over Bellevue and Waldorf.
The Red Raiders are off to a 16-0 start, the best start in program history, besting last year’s 14-0 start. Northwestern is one of nine teams in the NAIA to be undefeated.
