Tennessee's Abbott Honored As Softball Player Of Year

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- Tennessee ace Monica Abbott was honored as the USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year Tuesday in Oklahoma City.<br/><br/>A 6-foot-3 left-hander, Abbott is 46-3 this season with

Tuesday, May 29th 2007, 9:14 pm

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- Tennessee ace Monica Abbott was honored as the USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year Tuesday in Oklahoma City.

A 6-foot-3 left-hander, Abbott is 46-3 this season with an 0.60 ERA. She has 24 shutouts this season and has 649 strikeouts in 314-and-one-third innings pitched.

Her Lady Vols are the fifth seed in the Women's College World Series that starts Thursday in Oklahoma City. Defending champion Arizona is the top seed, with Northwestern, Texas A&M, Washington, Arizona State, Baylor and DePaul also in the field.

Abbott was a finalist for the award last year when Texas' Cat Osterman won it for the third time.

Abbott passed Osterman's NCAA strikeout record earlier this season, and she needs 15 strikeouts to break the season record of 663 set by Southern Miss pitcher Courtney Blades in 2000.

Arizona State outfielder Kaitlin Cochran and Oklahoma first baseman Samantha Ricketts were the other finalists.