CARBONDALE, Ill. – The Drake University softball team earned multiple Missouri Valley Conference honors on Wednesday night at the 2016 MVC Softball awards banquet.
 
For the second-straight year, Drake took home the league's top pitching award as sophomore Nicole Newman (Madison, Wis.) was named the 2016 MVC Pitcher of the Year. Newman was also selected to the All-MVC First Team for the second-consecutive season. Rebekah Schmidt won the award in 2015.
 
Joining Newman on the All-MVC First Team were freshman Kennedy Frank (Chesterfield, Mo.), junior Megan Sowa (Gurnee, Ill.) and sophomore Kelsey Wright (Olathe, Kan.). Freshman Taryn Pena (Columbia, Ill.) and sophomore Kailee Smith (Murrieta, Calif.) were All-MVC Second Team honorees. Sophomore Tasha Alexander (Eddyville, Iowa) was picked to the MVC All-Defensive Team.
 
Newman, who was named the 2015 MVC Freshman of the Year, is having an outstanding sophomore campaign. She is 21-12 with a 2.96 earned run average with a program-record and league-leading 269 strikeouts. Newman recorded 10 or more strikeouts in a game 10 times this season.
 
Frank is batting a team-leading .354 along with slugging a team-high nine home runs with 29 runs batted in. Her 58 hits this season is the seventh-best single-season total in program history. Frank collected three MVC Newcomer of the Week awards in her first season.
 
Sowa earned her third career All-MVC accolade also being named to the first team as a freshman and to the second team as a sophomore. This season, she is hitting .302 with a team-high 14 doubles and 39 RBI along with tallying one triple and six home runs. Sowa's doubles and RBI totals are each tied for the fourth best single-season marks in program history.
 
Wright collected her first All-MVC honor after a great second season. Batting in the leadoff spot, she is hitting .324 with two triples, two home runs, 14 doubles, 24 RBI and 40 runs scored. Wright's runs scored total is the fourth-highest single-season mark in program history and her doubles total ranks tied for fourth-best in program history.
 
In her first season, Pena is second on the team in hitting with a .340 batting average and has four home runs, 11 doubles and 34 RBI along with a team-high .467 on-base percentage. On Monday, Pena was named MVC Newcomer of the Week for the first time in her career after having a great final weekend of regular season play.
 
Smith is hitting .309 with seven home runs, nine doubles and 36 RBI. She has also pitched well in the circle with a 3-2 record and 31 strikeouts.
 
Rounding out Drake's award winners is Alexander, who started all 52 games for the Bulldogs in the regular season. She is hitting .250 with a career-high five home runs and 24 RBI. Alexander started the first 15 games in center field before shifting to shortstop where she started the final 37 games. This is the second season for the MVC All-Defensive team, which is completed by the league coaches who nominate one player each.
 
Drake will play its first game at the MVC Tournament, held in Carbondale, Ill., Friday, May 13 at 2:30 p.m. against the winner of Friday morning's quarterfinal action between Evansville or Illinois State versus UNI. Every game of the MVC Tournament will be broadcast online via The Valley On ESPN3.