BELLINGHAM, Wash. – Coming off a dominating week on the diamond, Western Washington University seniors Emily Benson and Makinlee Sellevold have swept the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Player and Pitcher of the Week honors for the third time this season.

 

Benson and Sellevold helped lead the Vikings to a 7-1 record last week, with all games played on the road. WWU swept a road GNAC doubleheader at Simon Fraser on Monday and then made history becoming the first GNAC school to go undefeated in the 18^th annual Tournament of Champions with a 5-0 record.

 

This marks the sixth and seventh GNAC weekly awards for WWU softball this season, pulling to within one of the all-time program record of eight set in 2007 and 2011. Sellevold has now won eight GNAC weekly awards (7 as a pitcher), most in WWU history and tied for 4^th-most in conference history. Benson is now a five-time GNAC Player of the Week award winner, including three this season.

 

Benson (West Richland, WA/Kamiakin) combined to bat .565 (13-for-23) with 9 runs scored, 4 doubles, 5 home runs and 14 RBI in the eight games last week. She combined recorded a pair of multi-home run games in contests at Simon Fraser and Sonoma State, and went 5-for-5 with 7 RBI against Dominican. In the five games in the Tournament of Champions she earned tournament MVP honors by batting .600 (9-for-15) with five extra-base hits (2B-4, HR-1) and 9 RBI.

 

For the season the first baseman leads the GNAC in the triple crown categories, batting .473 (44-for-93) with 13 home runs and 43 RBI. She is also tops in the conference with a 1.011 slugging percentage and .560 on-base percentage.

 

For her career, Benson is within one home run of the all-time GNAC record with 44 home runs and set the WWU all-time record for RBI last week with 155. She already holds the school mark for career home runs and extra-base hits (78) and currently has the highest batting average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage in school history.

 

Sellevold (Everett, WA/Cascade) earned her third GNAC Pitcher of the Week award after going 5-1 with a 1.44 ERA (7 ER, 34.0 IP) in six appearances (5 starts). The right-hander was one of just two pitchers named to the Tournament of Champions All-Tournament team, going 3-0 with a 0.64 ERA (2 ER, 22.0 IP) in three starts.

 

For the season, Sellevold is 14-7 overall with a 2.26 ERA (42 ER, 130.0 IP) in 23 appearances and 21 stats. She has recorded 4 shutouts and 13 complete games. Amongst GNAC leaders she is tops in wins (14), strikeouts (112) and innings pitched (130.0), while ranking 2^nd in ERA (2.26) and 3^rd in opposing batting average (.242).

 

For her career, Sellevold is WWU's all-time wins leader with a career 57-30 record, the 4^th-most wins in GNAC history. She is also tied for 9^th in GNAC history and tied for 4^th in WW history with 53 complete games.

 

The Vikings are 22-9 overall and has won 9 of its last 10 and 17 of its last 21 games. WWU finished non-conference play with an 11-6 record, with four of the six losses vs. ranked opponents, and head into the second half of GNAC play in 2^nd place with an 11-3 record. WWU concludes its extended road trip this weekend traveling to play Saint Martin's on Saturday in Lacey and Central Washington in Ellensburg on Saturday.

 

WWU has been the recipient of seven GNAC Player and Pitcher of the Week awards so far in 2019, all coming in the last five weeks.