Carri Leto didn’t stroll to a podium and pose for a photo, she didn’t wait nervously for her name to be called on television, and she won’t even have to forego her senior season. But Leto accomplished something no other Northwestern female athlete ever has: She was drafted into a professional sports league.
Leto, a senior infielder on the NU softball team, was drafted by the San Antonio Armadillos in the second round of National Professional Fastpitch’s draft on Dec. 7.
“There are so many talented softball players, I am just honored to have been drafted,” Leto said in a press release. “I don’t know exactly what to expect, but I am ready to take on another adventure.”
The 16th overall pick and one of two Big Ten players chosen, Leto is prohibited from signing a contract with the Armadillos until she completes her senior season at NU. Leto batted .343 and tied the school’s single-season doubles record as a junior, and was the only Cats player asked to try out for the U.S. National team in the summer.
The eight-team NPF has been in operation since 1997 as Women’s Pro Fastpitch and the Women’s Professional Softball League.
STEPPING IN: NU Athletic Director Mark Murphy didn’t have to look far to find a successor to Marisa Didio when the field hockey coach retired at the end of last season after nine years at the helm. In fact, he didn’t have to look farther than the Cats’ sideline.
Kelly McCollum, an NU assistant coach for the last four years, was named NU’s sixth field hockey coach Monday. McCollum succeeds her former mentor in Didio, who coached McCollum as a captain on NU’s 1994 Big Ten championship squad.
After graduating from NU with a degree in chemical engineering in 1994, McCollum relocated to the East coast, spending three seasons on the sidelines at Northeastern and two more at New Hampshire.
ONE AND DONE: For the second straight year, the NU volleyball team earned an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament. And for the second straight season, they were sent packing after the first round.
The Cats were dispatched in three games by Washington, 20-30, 21-30, 26-30. The loss marked the final match in the careers of four NU seniors, including Erika Lange, who finished a decorated NU career with a first-team All-Big Ten season. …
Coach Keylor Chan inked a recruiting class including three players from Illinois and one from Wisconsin, with all four topping the 6-foot mark.
OTHER SIGNINGS: Men’s golf coach Pat Goss announced the signing of two of the Midwest’s top junior golfers, Dan Doyle and Kyle Moore. The women’s team inked Katie Trachok and Brittany Johnston…The NU cross country team signed Alison Coren and Marie Grabinski to national letters of intent…The Cats lacrosse team mixed local talent with East-coast imports in a six-player recruiting class … The NU softball squad signed two players from the West coast in addition to Frankfurt, Ill., product Darcy Sengewald. … Women’s tennis coach Claire Pollard complemented last year’s freshman sensation Cristelle Grier with two recruits from Florida.
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