May 11, 2011

Complete Release

MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Conference USA announced the 2011 C-USA All-Conference Softball teams, Wednesday, with Heather Mott being named to the first-team and Ashleigh King being recognized on the All-Freshman team.

Co-champions Houston and Tulsa claimed four of the five individual awards, as voted by the head coaches of the conference’s softball teams.

Mott’s senior campaign will go down as one of the finest in the softball program’s history. She’s currently batting a school-record .372 with 10 home runs and 29 RBI (all career-highs), with 36 runs scored. She is only the second Memphis player to earn first team honors, joining Leila Dolfo who was named to the first team as a utility in 2007.

Mott is atop Conference USA in a number of categories, placing second in batting, slugging percentage (.686), on-base percentage (school-record .456), third in runs scored and tied for sixth in home runs.

Mott’s season took off when she moved back into her former role as the lead-off hitter in the series finale against Houston, March 20. Since then, she’s hitting .471 with seven home runs and 21 RBI as a catalyst at the top of the order. She’s reached base in 21 of 22 contests, and her school record-tying 14-game hitting streak came to an end May 7, at Southern Miss.

The Pensacola, Fla., native ended the season on a tear. From April 6 to the end of the regular season, she batted .542 (26-for-48), including eight of her season’s 12 multi-hit games, with five home runs and 17 RBI. Memphis went 13-1 over that span.

King joined the Tigers last fall after graduating from Cor Jesu Academy in St. Louis, Missouri. In her first season in the blue-and-gray, King hit .243 (fourth-highest on the team) in 37 starts in right field. She drove in 14 runs at the plate and displayed exemplary defense throughout the season, not making an error during the entire season.

In her freshman season, King had six multi-hit games, including a career-best 3-for-4 with two doubles, two RBI and two runs scored in the second game at UTEP.

King really came into her own during the Tigers West Coast swing at the Stanford Nike Invitational, hitting .300 (3-for-10) with four RBI, helping the Tigers go 3-1, including a win over then-16th ranked Stanford.

King is the eighth Memphis player to be named to the C-USA All-Freshman team. The Tigers have had a freshman named to the team all six years of the program’s history.

Mott, King and the rest of the Tigers will begin the quest for a Conference USA title, Thursday, when they take on defending C-USA champion and tournament host East Carolina, at 4:30 p.m. (ET).