Almond Earns PL Rookie of the Week; Softball to Play at St. Francis on Tuesday

LEWISBURG, Pa. – A Bucknell softball rookie was recognized for excellence for the second week in a row on Monday, as freshman Jacee Almond (Concord, Calif./Clayton Valley Charter) was selected as the Patriot League Rookie of the Week for her impressive play in a string of non-conference games over the course of the past week. The weekly honor is the second of Almond's career, as she was given the first Rookie of the Week award of the 2014 campaign, and she is the second consecutive Bison to receive the honor, as classmate Lara Bean was chosen as last week's honoree.

Almond hit .450 in Bucknell's five non-conference games last week, recording at least one hit in all of the contests to go 9-for-20 on the week. She was 2-for-4 with a run and an RBI in the first game of a doubleheader at Penn State, recording her fifth home run of the season, and was also 2-for-4 in the second game of the doubleheader against the Nittany Lions, scoring two runs in that outing. The rookie was also an offensive powerhouse in Bucknell's three-game series with Coppin State, hitting .500 in both of the team's wins. She hit two doubles in a 6-4 triumph on Friday, driving in a run and scoring one of her own, and registered another two doubles in Saturday's 6-1 victory over the Eagles, giving her a .800 slugging percentage for the week.

The rookie is currently hitting .355 on the season, a mark that ranks her third on the team and ninth in the Patriot League. Almond is also among the conference's best in a multitude of other categories, sitting in a tie for third with 10 doubles and ranking fourth in home runs (5), fifth in slugging percentage (.562), seventh in total bases (68), eighth in hits (43) and 10^th in runs scored (23). She has started in 37 of Bucknell's 38 games, spending most of her time at second base.

Before returning to Patriot League play this weekend with a three-game series at Colgate, Almond and the rest of the Bison will conclude a seven-game non-conference stand with a doubleheader at St. Francis (Pa.) on Tuesday afternoon. The squad heads into the twin-bill with a 17-21 overall record, having dropped two to Penn State and earned two wins over Coppin State in a three-game weekend series, and will look to carry the momentum from a 6-1 victory over the Eagles on Saturday afternoon into Tuesday's showdown.

Junior Cydnee Sanders, who currently ranks ninth in the nation with a .465 batting average, continues to lead the team and the Patriot League offensively, but she is helped considerably by classmate Kristen Zahn, who is hitting .372 and ranks second in the conference with a .628 slugging percentage, and Almond. In addition to Sanders' impressive national ranking, senior Mallory Lyons is seventh in Division I softball with 0.34 sacrifice hits per game, and the Bison rank ninth as a squad in doubles per contest, averaging 1.66 per outing.

Defensively, Bucknell is backboned by a young pitching staff that currently holds the third-best ERA (3.11) and the second-best opposing batting average (.249) in the Patriot League. Sophomore Cindy Cherness, who makes most of her appearances in relief, currently leads the conference with a 1.97 ERA, while Bean ranks sixth in that category with a 2.70 mark and is holding her opponents to a .195 batting average, the second-lowest number in the league. Sophomore Dana Nielsen has made a team-high 19 appearances, and currently leads the conference with 98 strikeouts.

Bucknell and St. Francis (Pa.) have met on 42 previous occasions, and the Bison hold the advantage in the series, having compiled a 24-18 record since 1987. The squads squared off three times last season, with rain cancelling the fourth meeting, and the Bison came away victorious on all three occasions. This season, the Red Flash have played to a 21-17 record, most recently dropping a pair of decisions to Bryant on Saturday.

First pitch in Tuesday's doubleheader is scheduled for 3 p.m. on the Red Flash Softball Field.