Top 10 Showdown On Montlake For Senior Weekend
SEATTLE – No. 8 Washington softball hosts No. 7 Stanford in a Top 10 matchup at Husky Softball Stadium this weekend to close out the regular season home slate.
The Huskies enter the weekend series with an overall record of 30-8 and 12-6 in conference action. Stanford is 37-10 on the season and second in the Pac-12 standings with a record of 13-5.
WEEKEND SCHEDULE
Friday, April 26
vs. #7 Stanford
Seattle, Wash. | Husky Softball Stadium
7 p.m. PT | Pac-12 Washington | Live Stats | Listen
Saturday, April 27
vs. #7 Stanford
Seattle, Wash. | Husky Softball Stadium
3 p.m. PT | Washington Live Stream | Live Stats | Listen
Sunday, April 28
vs. #7 Stanford
Senior Day
Seattle, Wash. | Husky Softball Stadium
12 p.m. PT | Pac-12 Network | Live Stats | Listen
CELEBRATING OUR SENIORS
On Sunday, the Huskies will honor their four seniors in a postgame ceremony - Jillian Celis, Avery Hobson, Lindsay Lopez and Brooke Nelson. The senior class has played in 289 combined games in the purple and gold.
RANKING ROUNDUP
The Huskies have been ranked in the Top 15 in 130 consecutive NFCA polls. The last time UW was not in the Top 15 was in the preseason poll in 2016 where the Huskies were No. 20.
TOUGH SCHEDULE
The Huskies' 2024 schedule includes 10 teams ranked in the Top 25 preseason poll by either the NFCA or USA Softball. The teams include Oklahoma, Florida State, Stanford, Oklahoma State, UCLA, Utah, LSU, Oregon, Nebraska, Kentucky while 2024 opponents Arizona, Arizona State, Minnesota and Cal are receiving votes. So far, UW has a record of 7-6 against Top 25 teams (at the time the game was played). Washington has had a pair of ranked games canceled due to weather in LSU (at Clearwater) and Florida State (at Jane Sanders Classic).
ROAD DAWGS
The Huskies opened the first four weeks of the season on the road opening up at the Puerto Vallarta College Challenge Feb. 8-10. Washington will then head to Florida for 10 days starting off at the Clearwater Invitational, followed by a pair of midweek games at Florida Gulf Coast and Stetson before ending the trip at the South Florida Showdown hosted by USF. UW then made its way down to Eugene, Ore. for the Jane Sanders Classic, Feb. 29-March 2. Washington is 9-4 in true road games and 11-2 in neutral site contests this season. At the conclusion of the regular season, the Huskies will have traveled 19,382 miles with 11,890 miles occurring in the non-conference slate.
HOME SWEET HOME
Since 2018, the Huskies have posted a 100-21 record at Husky Softball Stadium, including a 17-3 record in 2023. Washington is 10-2 at home this season.
HUSKY BATS ARE HOT
As a team, the Huskies have homered in 11 consecutive games and 13 of the last 14. In the last 11 contest, Washington has hit 25 homers. On the season, UW is 8th nationally with 1.50 home runs per game. Washington has five student-athletes in the Top 20 in the conference in slugging percentage. Brooke Nelson leads the Pac-12 at .757 followed by Rylee Holtorf (6th, .711), Alana Johnson (9th, .655), Kinsey Fiedler (12th, .636) and Jillian Celis 16th, .605).
PAC-12 HONORS
The Huskies have earned five Pac-12 weekly awards this season after Rylee Holtorf (player) and Sidne Peters (freshman) were honored earlier this month. Holtorf hit a pair of home runs – including the walk-off in game three – to help the Huskies sweep Oregon State. Peters recorded a pair of wins in 2.2 innings with five strikeouts and no hits allowed. Jillian Celis was named Player of the Week after the Jane Sanders Classic. Jadyn Glab earned freshman of the week during opening weekend and Ruby Meylan was named pitcher of the week during the second weekend.
DAWGS WORLDWIDE
Ruby Meylan, Lindsay Lopez, Jillian Celis, Sis Bates and Heather Tarr all represented national teams this summer along with former Huskies Ali Aguilar, Taran Alvelo and Baylee Klingler. Future Husky Morgan Reimer played with Team Canada in the Pan American Games. Meylan played with Team USA at the Japan All-Star Series in August. Bates, Tarr, Aguilar and Klingler participated with the US National Team at the WBSC World Cup Group A and Pan American Games. Lopez and Celis represented Mexico at the Canada Cup and Pan American Games while Alvelo played with Team Puerto Rico at the World Cup qualifier and Pan American Games.
Last month, Tarr was once again named head coach of the US Women's National Team for this summer at the WBSC Women's Softball World Cup Finals held in Castions di Strada, Italy. She will be joined with Bates who was named to the WBSC World Cup roster last week as part of the US Women's National Team. Klingler will compete with the US Women's Elite Team at the Japan All-Star Series.
GETTING IT DONE IN THE CIRCLE
Last season, Ruby Meylan (18) and Lindsay Lopez (14) led the pitching staff in wins. It marked the first time since 2019 (Gabbie Plain - 24 and Taran Alvelo - 26) that the Huskies had a pair of pitchers with double digit wins. The duo is on track to do it again, with Lopez and Meylan sitting at nine. Brooke Nelson has also recorded five victories and Sidne Peters with seven. The last time the Huskies had three pitchers with 10 or more wins was in 2012 with Kaitlin Inglesby (19), Kasey Stanchek (10) and Bryana Walker (10). All four Husky pitchers have recorded at least one complete game.
NELSON GOES YARD (AGAIN)
Brooke Nelson had a pair of multi-home run games last week at Oregon (4/6/24) and at Boise State (4/10/24). The game at Oregon was Nelson's first multi-home run game. The last time a Husky had two multi-home run games in a span of four days was Morganne Flores in 2019 when she had two home runs at Oregon (3/24/19) and vs. Cal Poly (3/27/19). She recorded her third multi-home run game of the month in game two at Cal on April 20.
CONSISTENT CELIS
Fifth-year senior Jillian Celis has started in every single game of her career between her time at San Diego State and Washington. She has started in 221 games - 183 at SDSU and 38 at UW. Celis is 51st among active DI softball student-athletes with 221 hits in her career. She is tied for 12th with 49 doubles.
NO-NO
Fifth-year senior Brooke Nelson recorded her first career no-hitter and 50th in program history against Loyola Chicago at the South Florida Showdown. Nelson struck out five in the outing and allowed only one walk in the second inning to the leadoff batter. It was the first Husky no-hitter since Kelley Lynch and Ruby Meylan combined for one at Oregon State last season. Lynch also threw a no-hitter earlier in the year against Bethune-Cookman at Mary Nutter.
ALL-AROUND FIEDLER
Kinsey Fiedler has played seven positions during her time as a Husky. As a freshman she saw time at second base and shortstop. As a sophomore added first base and catcher. This season she has seen action at third base, left field and center field.
CAREER WIN NO. 800
On Feb. 24, head coach Heather Tarr recorded career win No. 800 following an 8-0 run-rule victory over Yale at the South Florida Showdown. Tarr is Washington's all-time leader in wins among all sports. Among active Division I softball head coaches, Tarr is 28th in career wins. Only 10 other head coaches with more win have coached at one school. Her .727 winning percentage ranks ninth among DI active coaches that have coached five or more seasons.
ALL-TIME VS. STANFORD
Washington holds a 62-32 record over Stanford. Last season the teams faced each other four times with the Huskies winning the regular season series 2-1 in Palo Alto and Stanford winning in the WCWS. In Seattle, UW leads 35-7 with the Huskies sweeping the last meeting on Montlake in 2022.
SCOUTING THE CARDINAL
Stanford enters the weekend series with a record of 37-10 and 13-5 in conference action. The Cardinal sits at second in the Pac-12 standings behind UCLA. The Stanford pitching staff leads the conference with a 1.73 ERA and 17 shutouts. Sophomore pitcher NiJaree Canady who posts a 0.51 ERA - which leads the nation. Canady has also recorded 15 victories and four saves to four losses. At the plate, Emily Jones leads the team with a .403 average with 52 hits, nine doubles, a triple, two home runs and 14 stolen bases. Ava Gall is the team leader with 27 RBI while Taryn Kern has recorded 40 walks. As a team, Stanford is 81st nationally in batting average at .291 and 58th in fielding percentage at .969.
UP NEXT
The Huskies close out the regular season in Salt Lake City with a three-game series at Utah beginning on Friday, May 3. To view the entire weekend schedule and how to tune in, click here.
For more information on the UW softball team, follow @UWSoftball on X and Instagram.