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Sports

Cougars to host UCF in Conference USA play

Golden Knights looking to take top seed 
in upcoming C-USA tournament race

Ruthie Rodriguez
The Daily Cougar

Despite remaining idle last week, Houston still retains its hold on the top spot in Conference USA. The Cougars are 32-12 overall with a 13-2 mark in conference play.

However, the Cougars, who lead second-place East Carolina by only four and a half games, shouldn't get too comfortable with the heart of conference play just around the corner.

Central Florida sits in third place, trailing the Cougars by five games. The Golden Knights (32-18, 8-7 C-USA) took two of three games from Alabama-Birmingham this past weekend.

Houston will play host to UCF this weekend at Cougar Softball Stadium. The Cougars will take on ECU (30-15, 8-6 C-USA) the following weekend. 

The Cougars won't have an easy time contending with two teams that are hungry for the top spot in C-USA. It'll be interesting to see how they fare against UCF and ECU. 

The outcome of these two series will no doubt have a significant impact on the Cougars' season.

She's no slouch

Houston shortstop Jessica Valis recently received the National Strength and Conditioning Association All-American Strength and Conditioning Athlete of the Year award. 

According to UH strength coach Dale Jones, who nominated the sophomore shortstop for the award, Valis is deserving of such an achievement.

"Jessica works hard at everything she does and is continually looking to get better on the field and in the weight room," Jones told uhcougars.com. "She is one of those athletes that is easy to coach and is a joy to work with, because she has such a great work ethic."

Odds and ends

Tulsa right-hander Jackie Lawrence was awarded Louisville Slugger/NFCA National Player of the Week Wednesday after unloading a fierce offensive attack in five games against Central Arkansas and Memphis last week. The freshman right-hander went 14-15 at the plate (.933 average) with three doubles, a triple, 11 RBIs and seven runs.

Lawrence propelled the fourth-place Golden Hurricanes (25-22, 9-8 C-USA) to pivotal sweeps against those teams while preventing ninth-place Memphis from recovering from their last place position in the league standings.

Memphis senior pitcher Jenna Kubesch threw her fourth career no-hitter and second of the season in a 7-0 victory over Alcorn State on Thursday. 

Kubesch struck out a school-record 13 batters. The no-hitter was also her fourth shutout of the season. 

Southern Miss freshman Megan Hill earned her first C-USA Hitter of the Week honor after recording a 1.000 batting average in a split with Texas-El Paso last weekend. For the two-game series, Hill batted 4-for-4 with four walks, one intentional, 10 total bases and slugged 2.500.

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