Sisters Melanie and Monique Alyea led three Wayne State players who were selected by coaches to the 2017 NSIC All-Conference Softball Team announced by the league office in Burnsville, Minnesota.
The Alyeas were both first-team selections on this year’s listing, while catcher Katelyn Wobken was a second-team honoree. Melania Alyea was also selected to the NSIC Gold Glove Team.
Melanie Alyea, a senior first baseman from Phelan, Cailf., was a repeat first-team selection for the Wildcats after batting a team-high .416 in conference play and .313 overall while starting all 50 games this season. In NSIC games, she had five homers and 16 RBI’s and a team-high 32 hits. Overall this season, Alyea had six homers and 23 RBI’s (both team highs) while ranking second in hits with 46. She had a team-high 11 doubles and finished her Wildcat career fifth in doubles with 42. Defensively, Alyea had a team-high 349 putouts with nine assists and just two errors for a .995 fielding percentage to collect Gold Glove honors.
Monique Alyea, a senior third baseman from Phelan, Calif., started games at three different positions to earn first-team All-NSIC honors for the first time. She hit .388 in NSIC games and .324 overall this season to rank second on the team in both categories. Alyea had three homers and 10 RBI in conference play and was second in hits with 31 and overall had three homers with 16 RBI and tied for third in hits with 45. She had 10 multi-hit games this season was named the team’s Most Valuable Player.
Wobken, a 5-7 junior catcher from Scribner, was a second-team All-NSIC honoree after starting all 50 games at catcher this season, leading the team in most offensive categories. She led the Wildcats in batting average (.331), hits (56), runs scored (32), slugging percentage (.538) and stolen bases (13) and finished the season with five homers, five triples and 21 RBI. Wobken also had 16 multi-hit games and seven multi-RBI games, both team highs. In NSIC games, Wobken posted a .348 average with three homers and 10 RBI and had just one error for a .985 fielding percentage.
The Wildcats finished the 2017 season at 11-39 overall and 14th in the NSIC with a 5-21 league mark.
