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The University of Utah Athletics
No Doubt About It, Stahnke's A Star
5/24/2004 12:00 AM | Softball
May 24, 2004
By Patrick Kinahan
The Salt Lake Tribune
Link to Salt Lake Tribune article.
Melissa Stahnke started her University of Utah softball career full of doubt, wondering if she could even hang with her teammates.
Silly kid.
A senior, Stahnke is the program's all-time leader for career home runs (49) and a season (22). She hopes to add to her total during Utah's run in the NCAA Tournament, which begins today against No. 1 seed Stanford at Palo Alto, Calif.
"I had a lot of doubts," said Stahnke. "I was just in awe of everybody around me and the people I was competing against."
Nobody else did.
Utah coach Mona Stevens knew all along that Stahnke could be a college star. At Ridgefield High in Washington, she was a four-year MVP and left as the school's all-time leader in hitting, RBIs, walks and home runs.
Stevens was sold on Stahnke's greatness after watching her tear up an 18-and under tournament as a 16-year-old.
"She is a pure hitter," said Stevens. "I knew that she could do well."
The most surprising part about Stahnke's success is that it came early. As a freshman shortstop -- she's since moved to third base -- Stahnke hit .350 with 22 home runs and 67 RBIs.
She hasn't matched those impressive numbers the last three years, but as the captain this season still has a .327 batting average.
"I thought she'd take a year maybe to develop for us," Stevens said. "She had that freshman innocence of stepping into bat half the time and not knowing who you're facing and what you're doing. They go out and they don't think, they just do."
As a sophomore Stahnke batted .308 with 16 home runs. She tailed off last season, hitting .265, but has come back with a strong senior year, leading the team with a .394 on-base percentage.
"I look back on my freshman year and how much Mona helped me through and gave me all the confidence that I could do what I did," said Stahnke, who will complete her degree in elementary education next spring. "It's been an amazing experience."
She might as well have been talking about this season instead of her career. The Utes go into the NCAA playoffs at 23-31, with almost one-third of the losses suffered during a 10-game losing streak in February and March.
The Mountain West season was hardly better, as the Utes went 8-12. But they got hot last week, winning all three games in the conference tournament to capture the automatic NCAA bid.
Utah was rewarded with the No. 8 seed and a match against the 43-16 Cardinal.
Still, they are confident.
"I've said all along this team that I'm on right now is one of the most talented that I've been on at Utah," Stahnke said. "We just haven't seemed to find our groove and put some wins together, but we did last weekend. Like Mona says, we have really great chemistry on this team."
They also have Brianna Gourdin. The sophomore right-hander from Provo's Timpview High allowed only a total of eight hits in pitching Utah to all three conference tournament wins.
Fighting through illness and injuries the last two years, Gourdin finally is healthy.
"Our athletes are playing well right now," Stevens said. "We've already played several of the top teams and just need to stay on the roll we are on."
Players Mentioned
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