2022 MVC Softball All-Conference Release
ST. LOUIS -- The Missouri Valley Conference has announced the All-Conference Teams and specialty award winners on Wednesday morning ahead of the MVC Softball Championship. No. 1 Seed, UNI, claimed the Most Valuable Player, Defensive Player of the Year, Freshman of the Year and Coaching Staff of the Year. Missouri State collected Most Valuable Pitcher and Evansville claimed the final specialty award, Newcomer of the Year.
UNI’s Emmy Wells won the Missouri Valley Conference Most Valuable Player and Defensive Player of the Year honors. Wells is the first student-athlete to earn Most Valuable Player and Defensive Player of the Year honors in the same year since the defensive award was created in 2015. In Valley play, Wells ranks in the top-five in batting average (4th), slugging percentage (1st), on base percentage (2nd), runs batted in (1st), home runs (1st) and walks (5th). Wells finished league play with a .393 batting average, 33 RBIs, 11 home runs, 224 putouts and a .992 fielding percentage. In all NCAA Division I Softball, Emmy is seventh in home runs per game, tenth in home runs and RBIs per game, 18th in slugging percentage and 27th in RBIs.
Steffany Dickerson of Missouri State was named MVC Most Valuable Pitcher. Dickerson leads The Valley in eight categories including earned run average (0.87), opposing batting average (.194), batters struck out looking (33), wins (13) and walks allowed (16). In her 113 innings pitched in Conference play, Steffany struck out 105 batters and pitched 10 complete games. In all NCAA Division I Softball, Dickerson ranks 30th in victories and 66th in strikeout-to-walk ratio.
The MVC Newcomer of the Year was Zoe Frossard of Evansville. The Newcomer of the Year honor is given to a junior college or 4-year transfer and this is the second-time Evansville has earned the award since 2017. Frossard started 24 games for the Aces and finished the Conference season with a .905 fielding percentage.
The Freshman of the Year honors went to Mya Dodge of UNI. Dodge concluded her 2022 Conference campaign with a .370 batting average, 23 runs scored, 30 hits, 7 home runs and 20 RBIs. In all NCAA Division I Softball, Mya ranks in the top-75 in home runs, home runs per game, runs per game,
sacrifice flies, stolen bases per game and total bases.
Ryan Jacobs and his assistants Monica Wright and Garret Furnal won this year’s Coaching Staff of the Year award for the second-consecutive year. The trio led the Panthers to a 31-13 overall record and a 22-2 mark in the MVC, earning the No. 1 Seed for the 2022 MVC Softball Championship. The Panthers 22 Conference wins set a program record. This season marks the 17th time in program history that the Panthers have won 30 games. It is the fifth time that Coach Jacobs and his staff have earned Coaching Staff of the Year honors.
League awards are voted on by the head softball coaches.
