After securing its third consecutive Big Ten regular season title Sunday, No. 23 Northwestern garnered eight all-conference honors. Coach Kate Drohan earned Big Ten Coach of the Year, and graduate student Ashley Miller received Big Ten Pitcher of the Year.
Sophomore infielder Kansas Robinson and sophomore outfielder Kelsey Nader earned first-team selections, building on their all-freshman team honors from 2023. Both players rank among the top 10 in the conference for batting average, with Robinson holding fourth place at .409 and Nader following closely behind at .377.
Miller joins the sophomore sluggers on the first team as the only Wildcat to earn a unanimous selection. Miller boasts a conference-best 1.34 ERA and has given up 29 earned runs in 151.1 innings pitched this season.
Drohan collected her sixth Big Ten Coach of the Year honor — her fourth in five seasons — after seeing no drop-off from last year’s 42-win season with seven new faces in the starting lineup.
NU has collected eight Coach of the Year honors in program history, with former coach Sharon Drysdale earning the award in 1987 and 1995. With Drohan at the helm, the ’Cats secured their third consecutive Big Ten Championship, boasting a 19-3 conference record and claiming the No. 1 seed in this year’s Big Ten Tournament.
Freshman catcher Emma Raye earned spots on both the conference’s all-freshman team and the Big Ten All-Defensive team. Starting behind the dish in all but one game this season, Raye holds a .992 fielding percentage and has yet to allow a stolen base this season.
Earning a spot on the sportsmanship team, senior pitcher Lauren Boyd has proved essential on the team despite being sidelined for substantial portions of her career due to injury.
Following Sunday’s regular season finale against Indiana, NU will head to Iowa City for a Big Ten Tournament quarterfinal matchup against the victor of Purdue and Indiana Thursday.
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