IRVINE, Calif. – Concordia is well-represented on the All-PacWest team after winning the PacWest SoCal Pod, and the Eagles also received three special awards with McKinsey Thorpe as Player of the Year, Callie Nunes as Pitcher of the Year and Kelsea Sweeney as Newcomer of the Year to lead selections to the All-PacWest Team.
 
Biola’s Nikki Udria is the PacWest Coach of the Year, Chaminade’s Cheyne Obara is the Defensive Player of the Year, and Haley Randall from Academy of Art was voted as the Freshman of the Year by the PacWest coaches.
 
Thorpe is the first player from Concordia to be selected as the PacWest Player of the Year. She led the Eagles in several offensive categories with a .373 batting average, .435 on-base percentage, 59 total bases and 13 stolen bases. Thorpe’s most productive game of the year offensively came against Azusa Pacific on April 6 when she went 4 for 4 with three RBIs and was just a double away from the cycle.
 
Nunes became the first pitcher in PacWest history to be named the Pitcher of the Year three times in her career. The senior has a 1.69 earned run average with a 10-3 record this year. She has 75 strikeouts in 95.1 innings pitched and two saves. In her last five outings, Nunes has thrown 18.1 innings with only two runs allowed and eight strikeouts. She now has 678 career strikeouts, which is the most among active pitchers in the PacWest.
 
In each of Nunes’ four years at Concordia, she has been complemented by different pitchers that gave the Eagles’ a strong pitching staff. This year, Sweeney joined the program as a transfer from Idaho State and has tallied a 7-3 record so far  with a 2.12 earned run average. She has 38 strikeouts in 66 innings pitched. On March 20, she threw 4.2 shutout innings against Azusa Pacific with a season-high seven strikeouts and only four hits with no walks allowed for her first win with Concordia. Sweeney’s role on the pitching staff expanded throughout the season and she threw four complete games in her last nine appearances.
 
Udria was selected by her peers as the PacWest Coach of the Year and is the fourth different head coach from Biola to win the PacWest award across all sports, joining Dave Holmquist, Sean Henning and Aaron Seltzer. Biola has a 19-13 record this season and is set to qualify for the NCAA West Regional for the first time in program history. The Eagles took second place in the SoCal Pod with a record of 14-10, and they also won three of four games against PacWest NorCal Pod Champion Dominican.
 
Randall had the eighth-best batting average in the league this year at .385 to go along with 26 RBIs and five home runs. On April 9, she went 4 for 5 with three RBIs and was a triple away from the cycle. She helped the Urban Knights go 14-10 on the season in the NorCal Pod to finish one game out of first place.
 
Obara started all 24 games for the Silverswords this season, playing primarily at second base for the Silverswords. She had a .960 fielding percentage and turned six double plays for Chaminade. She only had two errors in the first 19 games of the season and had a team-best 65 assists on the season.
 
Paige Austin from Biola, Kiarra Lincoln from Hawai`i Hilo and Nunes were all first-team selections this year, earning their third career All-PacWest recognition. Amanda Woods for Azusa Pacific and Cieana Curran for Hawai`i Pacific also earned their third All-PacWest awards. Concordia had four All-PacWest first-team honorees, while Biola had three and Dominican had two. Aly Montesino from Azusa Pacific is the only freshman to make the first team.
 

2021 ALL-PACWEST SOFTBALL AWARDS
Player of the Year	McKinsey Thorpe	Concordia
Pitcher of the Year	Callie Nunes	Concordia
Defensive Player of the Year	Cheyne Obara	Chaminade
Newcomer of the Year	Kelsea Sweeney	Concordia
Freshman of the Year	Haley Randall	Academy of Art
Coach of the Year	Nikki Udria	Biola