Giampaolo Garners Big Ten Player of the Week Honors
5/10/2005 12:00:00 AM | Softball
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- The top-ranked University of Michigan softball team claimed its 10th Big Ten regular-season championship this past weekend with a two-game series sweep of Northwestern and with the team accolades, the individual recognition soon follows. As such, freshman centerfielder Alessandra Giampaolo (Pasadena, Calif./Polytechnic HS) has beeen named the Big Ten Conference Player of the Week for the first time in her young career.
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This week's honor is the 10th such honor for a Wolverine this season. Hurlers Jennie Ritter (Dexter, Mich./Dexter HS) and Lorilyn Wilson (Salem, Ore./Sprague HS) have been bestowed the honor three times apiece this season, while Michigan position players Merchant, Nicole Motycka (Sarasota, Fla./Cardinal Mooney HS), Tiffany Haas (Santa Ana, Calif./Foothill HS) and, now, Giampaolo have been recognized once apiece.
Giampaolo hit her first career triple and her 14th double of the season in a doubleheader sweep of Western Michigan on May 4. The centerfielder is second on U-M's roster with 14 doubles and is tied for fifth in the Big Ten in that category.
She then came up big in the biggest weekend of the season to date, helping Michigan to a pair of must wins over Northwestern in order to win the regular-season championship. Giampaolo went 2-3 with a run scored in Saturday night's (May 7) 3-0 over the Wildcats and then closed out the week with maybe her best performance as a Wolverine in Sunday's (May 8) come-from-behind 8-7 win.
For the season, Giampaolo is hitting .335 with 14 doubles, six home runs, 21 RBI and team-leading 11 sacrifices. She and the rest of the No. 1 Wolverines are set to play host to this weekend's (May 12-14) Big Ten Tournament at Alumni Field as the conference's top seed. Michigan opens up action vs. No. 8 seed Michigan State on Thursday (May 12, 7:30 p.m.) with the winner moving on to semifinal action on Friday (May 13, 7:30 p.m.).
The championship game is slated for Saturday (May 14, noon) and will be televised live nationally on College Sports Television.
Contact: Rich Marion (734) 763-4423
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