The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
No. 1/2 Softball's Atwood earns fourth career NFCA Player of the Week honor
03.11.2025 | Softball
Reese Atwood joins Cat Osterman as only four-time NFCA weekly honor recipient in Texas history.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Following a highly productive slate over the last week, Texas junior Reese Atwood has been named the Louisville Slugger NFCA Player of the Week on Tuesday afternoon, the National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) announced.
The honor is the fourth career NFCA weekly award from the third-year Longhorn, joining former Texas standout Cat Osterman (6) as the only UT softball student-athletes to pick up a weekly NFCA honor four-or-more times in a career. Atwood was also named the NFCA's national player of the week three times throughout the 2024 season: Feb. 13, Feb. 27 and May 7.
Due to the NFCA's timeline (Monday to Sunday) for its weekly awards, only Texas' games against Baylor (Wednesday), Merrimack (Saturday), Oakland (Saturday) and Kent State (Sunday) counted towards Atwood's statistics for her nomination.
During that four-game span, though, Atwood slashed .636/.692/1.818 in 11 official plate appearances. Six of her seven hits went for extra bases — two doubles, one triple and three home runs — while she drove in seven runs and totaling 20 bases. Her seven runs scored were tied with Joley Mitchell for the most by a Longhorn over the four-game stretch. She also drew two walks and was one of four Texas softball student-athletes with eight-or-more official plate appearances over the four games to not strike out at the dish.
In addition to her 1.000 fielding percentage behind the plate, Atwood also helped guide a Texas pitching staff to a 0.32 earned run average (ERA) while striking out 36 opponents and limiting opponents to just a .107 batting average in 22 innings in the circle.
Against Kent State on Sunday, March 9, Atwood finished a single shy of completing the cycle after going 3-for-4 with three runs batted in (RBI) and two runs scored in Texas' 15-1, five-inning win over the Golden Flash. She also went 2-for-3 with two RBI against Merrimack and 2-for-2 with two RBI against Oakland on Saturday, March 8. Atwood also hit a home run against all three weekend opponents at the Ohio State Tournament.
Atwood, following a nine-RBI week after including Monday's action against Dayton and Ohio State, will enter Texas' three-game SEC series at No. 3/3 Florida this weekend just six RBI shy of breaking the program's career RBI record held by Taylor Thom (2011-14).
UP NEXT
After receiving a bye week during the first weekend of Southeastern Conference (SEC) action, Texas (26-1) will now begin its first-ever SEC series on Saturday, March 15, when the Longhorns travel down to Gainesville, Fla., for a three-game series against No. 3/3 Florida.
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