BELLINGHAM, Wash. – Western Washington University head softball coach Sheryl Gilmore has announced that Canadian middle infielder Ellie Jespersen has signed a national letter of intent to play for the Vikings beginning with the 2022 season.
 
Jespersen is a native of Spruce Grove, Alberta, Canada – a suburb of Edmonton – and is a member of the Baseball Canada Women's National Team. She has played baseball since she was five years old, and will be making the transition to softball at the collegiate level.
 
"We are super excited to have Ellie join the program. We love her high-level baseball experience, especially as a middle infielder, and believe that her athleticism, grit, leadership, competitiveness and love for the game will make an immediate impact here as she makes the transition to softball," said Gilmore. "We are thrilled for her to continue her work to represent Team Canada on their Women's National Baseball Team during the offseason."
 
Jespersen joined Team Canada as a 16-year-old for the World Cup qualifier. The 5-foot, 3-inch middle infielder hit leadoff for Team Canada at the 2019 Pan American Games in Mexico, where she helped lead the team to a bronze medal. She earned the Team Canada Futures Award after batting .471 and solidified the middle infield as the youngest player on the team.
 
"All the girls on the team were super-positive about the program and especially positive about the coach," said Jespersen. "A good coach is a huge part of succeeding in high level sports and I am very excited to learn from and play for coach Gilmore. The competitive spirit and enthusiasm of the softball program excites me as I look forward to my first year of university education and ball."
 
In addition to playing for the Canadian National Team with her older sister Carrie (played college softball at DII Cedarville University), Jespersen is a two-time MVP of her basketball team at Spruce Grove Composite High School. Additional awards include the being selected as the Baseball Alberta Women's Open Player of the Year and the Baseball Alberta U16 Women's Player of the Year in 2019. She was one of only four Canadians to be chosen to participate in the Breakthrough Series conducted by Major League Baseball in Vero Beach, Florida.
 
At the 2019 Baseball Alberta Women's Open she batted .409 (9-for-22) with two doubles, two triples, four walks and eight RBI in six games (.519 OBP, .682 SLG, 1.200 OPS) and also had a perfect fielding percentage in 19 chances.
 
Jespersen is also an honor roll student at Spruce Grove Composite and is interested in pursuing a degree in business administration at Western with the goal of running her own business in the future.
 
She completes a five-player recruiting class for Western that is set to debut on the diamond in the spring of 2022 (will enroll in fall of 2021). Other signees include pitcher Joie Baker (Mililani, HI), utility player Lexi Barcomb (Pasco, WA), infielder Taylor Clark (Kennewick, WA) and utility player Kanilehua Pitoy (Honolulu, HI).
 
The Vikings are coming off a 23-14 season in 2021, which included winning the GNAC Championship Tournament to advance to the NCAA Division II Softball Championships for the fifth time in program history.
  Up-to-date season information, including season statistics, bios, roster, schedule and historical information can be viewed online at WWUVikings.com/Softball. WWU Softball also has a strong social media presence on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, so give them a follow!
  The WWU softball program completed its 29^th season in 2021, with the Vikings advancing to the NCAA Division II Championships for the fifth time in program history. WWU has posted a winning record 18 times during the 29-year history of the program, which won the 1998 NAIA National Championship in only its sixth season to record the school's first ever team national title. Over the last eight seasons (since 2014), the Vikings are 195-148 and have won two of the last four GNAC Tournament titles (2017 & 2019). Head coach Sheryl Gilmore is in her third season at the helm of the program in 2020 after leading WWU to 27 wins, tied for the 10^th-most in program history, in her first campaign in 2019 and has an overall 60-44 record (.577).