Softball Winner and Nominees

Cat Osterman of the University of Texas has been chosen the nation's top collegiate female softball athlete for 2006, marking the second year in a row that she has won the prestigious award. A senior from Houston, TX,, Osterman was the youngest member of the U.S. Olympic team to take home a gold medal in Athens in 2004. A record three-time USA Softball National Player of the Year, the 6'2" athlete is noted as one of the top softball pitchers in the world. This season, she set the NCAA career strikeout record (2,265) and strikeout ratio record for strikeouts-per-seven innings (14.4), and ranks No. 2 all-time in career shutouts (85). While leading the NCAA this year with an ERA of 0.37 and strikeouts-per-seven-innings (15.4), Osterman finished 38-4, with 28 shutouts and five no-hitters, and led Texas to a Women's College World Series berth (softball's final eight) for the third time in her Longhorn career.   Osterman is a four-time National Fastpitch Coaches Association All-American, and four-time Big 12 Conference Pitcher of the Year - becoming the first Big 12 student-athlete across all sports to earn a player of the year honor four times. In addition, the psychology major is a three-time member of the All-Big 12 Academic Team. Softball Nominees Andrea Duran The University of California at Los Angeles Monica Abbot University of Tennessee Sarah Fekete University of Tennessee