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OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. - Senior shortstop Delaney Spaulding is one of 50 players who were named to the Watch List for the 2017 USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year award, as announced on Wednesday.
The USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year award enters its 16th season and recognizes outstanding athletic achievement by Division I female collegiate softball players across the country. Previous recipients of the award include the first honoree in 2002, UCLA's Stacey Nuveman. Four Bruins have been Top 3 finalists for the award (Nuveman, 2002; Natasha Watley, 2002-2003; Megan Langenfeld, 2010; Ally Carda, 2014).
The preseason Watch List includes 26 seniors, 18 juniors and six sophomores, with freshmen ineligible for consideration (freshmen can be considered for the award once they have competed at the collegiate level). The Top 25 finalists will be announced on April 12. An athlete does not have to be on the Watch List to be considered for the Top 25, but the eventual USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year will come from the Top 25 finalists. The Top 10 finalists will be named on May 10, with the Top 3 announced on May 24. The POY will be revealed on May 30.
Spaulding, who will be a member of the U.S. Women's National Team for the second summer in a row in 2017, was an NFCA Second Team All-American, as well as an NFCA All-Region and All-Pac-12 First Team selection as a junior. She led the team with 17 home runs and 61 runs batted in, adding a .341 batting average. Spaulding was also second with 52 runs scored and a .694 slugging, tied for second with six stolen bases and third with nine doubles, 27 walks, five sacrifice hits and four hit by pitches. She ranked tied for 23rd in the nation in homers and RBI in 2016, while leading the squad with 17 multiple-RBI games and 14 multi-hit contests.
The preseason national polls were announced on Tuesday, as UCLA is eighth in both the ESPN.com/USA Softball and USA Today/NFCA rankings.
The Bruins open the 2017 campaign with the Stacy Winsberg Memorial Tournament next Friday, Feb. 10 at Easton Stadium at 4:30 p.m. with a doubleheader against South Dakota and San Diego State. Live audio for both contests will be available at UCLABruins.com.