NEWPORT NEWS, Va.— The Atlantic 10 Conference has named Massachusetts senior Quianna Diaz Patterson its Softball Player of the Week and Fordham senior Rachel Gillen its Pitcher of the Week. It marks the second straight Player of the Week award for Diaz Patterson and the third straight award for Gillen. Dayton freshman Manda Cash also earned Rookie of the Week honors. The awards were for games played Feb. 16 – 22.

A middle infielder from Amherst, Mass., Diaz Patterson hit .600 with five runs, five RBI, two doubles and two home runs at the Cougar Classic in Charleston, S.C. (UMass went 2-2 on the weekend). She had a 1.133 slugging pct. and a .647 on-base percentage with three multi-hit games. Diaz Patterson hit a solo home run in the 7-6 win over Bowling Green, while her 3-run blast against Winthrop scored the eventual game-winning runs for the Minutewomen. She also was perfect in 27 chances in the field last week and has not made an error in her last 37 opportunities over the last seven games.

Gillen collected a huge complete-game extra-inning victory at Furman, as she kept her team in the game in a 3-2 win. The southpaw from Wilmington, Del., went 8.0 innings, allowed two earned runs, scattered five hits, walked five, but fanned a career-high 15. She was then summoned into a game against Gardner-Webb, where she struck out three over 3.0 innings of work in a no decision. Gillen recorded a 1.91 ERA over 11.0 innings, whiffed 18 and yielded just five walks while scattering eight hits for the week.  

Cash, a pitcher from Columbus, Ohio, struck out 15 batters while pitching 11.2 innings, while allowing only three runs. She pitched in four different games over the weekend, posting a 2.31 ERA. That included two innings of relief against NC State where she struck out five and did not surrender a hit. She also had a seven-inning start where she struck out six, walked two, and only allowed one earned run.