May 1, 2012

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NAPERVILLE, Ill. -- Utah Valley's Kylee Brinkerhoff and Nebraska Omaha's Dana Elsasser have been named Great West Conference Softball Players of the Week after outstanding performances last week. The honors were announced Tuesday by the conference office.

Brinkerhoff, a junior from Spanish Fork, Utah, hit .417 (7-17) for the Wolverines last week with two doubles, a homer and three RBI. She was the Wolverines' most consistent performer last week as she recorded a hit in all five of UVU's games. Brinkerhoff hit a go-ahead two-run home run in the first game of Sunday's doubleheader at Idaho State in a contest that UVU went on to win, 3-2. She also swiped two bases for the week (2-3) and slugged .706 while posting a .444 on-base percentage. After her solid week, the outfielder is now second on the team in batting with a .310 average and has a team-high 10 doubles with two homers and 16 RBI.

The pitching honor went to Elsasser who shut out South Dakota 1-0 to improve to 13-7, then earned her second save of the season in 0.2 innings of relief in a 2-0 win over the Coyotes. The sophomore from Hershey, Neb., allowed four hits and one walk over 7.2 innings and has given up just one earned run in her last seven starts. Elsasser has eight shutouts in her last 14 starts, including two in a row, and her 0.80 ERA is the top mark among Division I pitchers.

The 2012 Great West Conference Softball Championship will be held May 13-14, at Farmers Branch, Texas, and will be hosted by defending champion Houston Baptist.

Brinkerhoff and the Wolverine will be in action tonight (Tuesday) and will take on BYU in Provo at 6 p.m. UVU will then face the Cougars again on Wednesday but this time the contest will be in Orem at 5 p.m.