W h a t A Y e a r F o r J u d s o n : 6 C C A C C h a m p i o n s h i p sSoftballnccaa national tournament3rd place
W h a t A Y e a r F o r J u d s o n : 6 C C A C C h a m p i o n s h i p ssoftball keeps moving forwardThe 2008 season proved to be one of the finest forthe program in only Becky Bruns fourth season.Coach Bruns has improved her teams each year andthe 2008 season was a season where the hard laborstarted to pay off. The <strong>Judson</strong> Eagles finished thirdat the NCCAA National Tournament, broke the schoolrecord for wins in a season, and won a <strong>CCAC</strong> Tournamentgame.It was also a season of many records and awards for<strong>Judson</strong>. Seven individual single season records, fourteam records, and the career record for home runswere all broken in 2008.<strong>Judson</strong> started off the season 6-4 out in Arizona atthe Tucson Invitational. <strong>Judson</strong> knocked off nationallyranked McKendree University along the way inthe 10 games.From there, <strong>Judson</strong> kept trucking through the first halfof the season as they swept St. Xavier in <strong>CCAC</strong> play.This was the first time that <strong>Judson</strong> had defeated St.Xavier in the history of the program and the Cougarswere also ranked #2 in the NAIA Region VII poll. Becauseof their start, <strong>Judson</strong> moved up to #3 in theNAIA Region VII poll.From that point on, <strong>Judson</strong> bounced back in forth inthe win column finished the season at 24-24. <strong>Judson</strong>did receive an at-large bid to the NCCAA NationalTournament in Florida for the second year in a rowand ended up claiming third place, their best finish,ever.In the <strong>CCAC</strong> Tournament, <strong>Judson</strong> was the #6 seedand fell to #3 St. Xavier in eight innings, 6-2. <strong>Judson</strong>fought back and won their first <strong>CCAC</strong> Tournamentgame under Bruns by defeating Cardinal Stritch, 5-4,but then fell to #2 St. Francis, 3-2, in eight innings.The post season was very generous to <strong>Judson</strong> asthey picked up several NCCAA and <strong>CCAC</strong> awards.<strong>Judson</strong> also had their first-ever award at the NAIAlevel when Nicole Dimiceli was awarded to the NAIAAll-Region team.3rd at nccaa nationals<strong>For</strong> the second straight season, <strong>Judson</strong> received anat-large bid to the NCCAA National Tournament. Thiswas only the second time that any softball team hadgone to a national tournament. In West Palm Beach,Florida, <strong>Judson</strong> started off the tournament with a 2-0record. <strong>Judson</strong>, with a #7 seed, shut out #6 PalmBeach Atlantic, 2-0, and then knocked off #1 Mt.Vernon Nazarene, 3-2. On the following day, <strong>Judson</strong>faced one of their biggest challenges in #3 OlivetNazarene as they faced the Tigers for the fourth timein the season and fell, 10-2. On the followingday, in a rematch with Palm Beach Atlantic anda chance to play for the national championship,<strong>Judson</strong> lost, 7-5, to finish 2-2 and claim thirdplace.naia all-region<strong>For</strong> the first-time in the history of the program,<strong>Judson</strong> had a player named to the NAIA RegionVII All-Region team. Nicole Dimiceli picked upthe award for her strong batting performance.She hit over .400 on the season and had eighthome runs and 47 RBI.nccaa national awards<strong>Judson</strong> picked up several NCCAA nationalawards due to their play in the 2008 season.All-Americans: <strong>Judson</strong> had two NCCAA All-American 1st Team selections in Debra Leganskiand Nicole Dimiceli. This was the second yearin row that Leganski was named a NCCAA All-American.All-Tournament: Three players were given NC-CAA All-Tournament awards for their play at thenational tournament in Nicole Dimiceli, Tricia Lakotish,and Aimee Ewert.Player of the Week: Nicole Dimiceli garneredthe NCCAA National Player of the Week awardfor April 19th for helping <strong>Judson</strong> go 4-4. Afterfour scoreless innings vs. Purdue-NC, Nicole hita three-run home run, en route to a 5-3 win. Inher first at-bat vs. St. Francis, Nicole hit a 2-runhome run home run and then batted again in theinning with a 2-run double for 4 RBI in first inning.In the final <strong>CCAC</strong> game of the season vs. TIU,she had two doubles and scored three times.nccaa All-regionThree players earned NCCAA All-Region inNicole Dimiceli, Debra Leganski, and Lizzy Jacobson.This was the second year in a row thatn i c o l e d i m i c e l in c c a a A l l - A m e r i c a nN C C A A A l l - T o u r n a m e n tN C C A A A l l - R e g i o n 1 s t T e a mN A I A A l l - R e g i o nC C A C F r e s h m a n o f t h e Y e a rA l l - C C A C 1 s t T e a mC C A C A l l - T o u r n a m e n tN C C A A N a t i o n a l P l a y e r o f t h e W e e kC C A C P l a y e r o f t h e W e e kLeganski was named to the first-team.nccaa/NAIAacademic all-americansTwo players were named both to the NAIA andNCCAA Academic All-American teams for theirgrade point average. Amy Meier and Tricia Lakotishboth had high GPAs to earn the awards.It was the second year in a row that Meier wasnamed a NCCAA Academic All-American.ccac awardsHaving one of their finer seasons in the <strong>CCAC</strong>with a 10-8 record, <strong>Judson</strong> had four playersnamed All-<strong>CCAC</strong>. Three of the four playerswere given All-<strong>CCAC</strong> First-Team status. Thefour players matched the most by any <strong>Judson</strong>team as four players were also named in the2002 season. Debra Leganski, Nicole Dimiceli,and Lizzy Jacobson were all first-team selectionswhile Kristin Krueger was a honorablemention selection.All-Tournament: Both Nicole Dimiceli and AimeeEwert were named to the All-Tournamentteam. It was the first selections for the All-Tournamentteam since the 2003 season.Player of the Week: Nicole Dimiceli was theonly player to receive the <strong>CCAC</strong> Player of theWeek award on March 17th.ccac freshman of the year<strong>For</strong> the first-time in the history of the program,<strong>Judson</strong> had a <strong>CCAC</strong> Freshman of the <strong>Year</strong>.Nicole Dimiceli was given the award for herplayer. She was first in total bases and sluggingpercentage, second in batting average,and third in hits and home runs.