ST. LOUIS – Junior Nicole Timmons (Davenport, Iowa) and freshman Emily Valtman (Newton, Iowa) of the Drake University softball team are the Missouri Valley Conference Pitcher and Newcomer of the Week, respectively, the MVC office announced Monday, Feb. 10 afternoon.
 
Timmons is Drake's ace this season following the graduation of Nicole Newman. Timmons was impressive at the Doc Halverson UNI-Dome Classic going 3-1 with a 0.36 earned run average with 22 strikeouts to just four walks helping her win her first MVC Pitcher of the Week award. She tossed a pair of one-hitters, including the season-opening win over South Dakota where she struck out 14 Coyotes and issued just two walks. Timmons closed the tournament with another one-hitter, facing just one more than the minimum (16), in the Bulldogs' five-inning 9-0 win over DePaul.
 
Valtman had an impressive first weekend as a Bulldog tallying a .444 (4-of-9) batting average,  .500 on-base percentage and 1.222 slugging percentage. She crushed a pair of three-run home runs in the big victory over the Blue Demons to close the tournament.
 
Sammy Bunch of UNI was voted the MVC Player of the Week.
 
Drake visits Palo Alto, Calif. for the Stanford Invitational, Feb. 14-16, where it will play Hofstra three times and host Stanford twice.