Sophomore Tara Vandewater was named the BIG EAST Player of the Week and freshman Audrey Gilman earned BIG EAST Freshman of the Week honors on April 20, following Creighton University’s softball series sweep at St. John’s.
These awards recognize individual achievements that contributed to Creighton’s first series sweep over St. John’s since joining the conference in 2014. Both players are receiving their first BIG EAST weekly honors, highlighting their impact on the team’s success this season.
Vandewater played a key role in all three games against St. John’s, recording a .545 batting average with six hits, two doubles, two home runs—including a grand slam—and driving in ten runs. She delivered an RBI double for the game-winning run in Friday’s opener and nearly hit for the cycle during Saturday’s doubleheader while setting a career-high with six RBIs. Vandewater has started all 47 games this season and leads her team in several categories including batting average (.387), hits (53), triples (4), RBIs (52), and slugging percentage (.715). Her current RBI total is third-best for a single season in program history.
Gilman was effective as pitcher throughout the series, finishing with a 2-0 record, eight strikeouts over fourteen innings, and helping secure both shutout and complete-game wins. She improved her record to 8-0 within conference play while posting a team-best seventy-four strikeouts across one hundred forty-four innings pitched this year.
The rest of the week’s conference recognitions included Addy Frye from Providence as Pitcher of the Week and several players named to the Honor Roll from Butler, UConn, DePaul, Providence, and St. John’s.
Looking ahead, Vandewater, Gilman and their teammates will continue their pursuit of a BIG EAST Regular Season title when they face UConn in an upcoming three-game series.
