NORFOLK, Va. – Returning home before the holiday, the Norfolk State softball team hosts a MEAC series with North Carolina Central on Friday and Saturday, April 15-16 at the NSU Softball Field.

The first game with the Eagles on Friday will be aired live on ESPNU. The second game of the double will be streamed as usual on NSUSpartans.com/watch. Live stats will be available for both games on the athletics website.

The Spartans (24-15, 9-3 MEAC) are coming off their second-straight MEAC series sweep, winning all three contests at South Carolina State last weekend. NSU opened with a 7-2 win in the opener before wining game two 13-4 in six innings. The Spartans closed out the series with a 15-7 win in six innings on Sunday.

NCCU (9-25, 6-6 MEAC) dropped all three games against Howard last weekend in its most recent MEAC series. They fell in the opener 4-3 before conceding the final two games 19-3 (6 innings) and 12-2 (5 innings). The Eagles lost both ends of a mid-week, non-conference doubleheader at Appalachian State on Tuesday, 18-1 (5 inn.) and 11-9.

NSU vs. NCCU On Deck

• Kenna Higa is having one of the hottest years for a Spartan freshman. She is batting .387 with 12 doubles and a team-leading 12 doubles on the season.
• Higa leads several and ranks high multiple other offensive categories in the MEAC. Her .663 slugging percentage (.663), OPS (1.154), hit by pitch (9), and sacrifice flies (4) are all atop the conference. Higa also ranks second in on base percentage (.491), RBIs (29), doubles (12); third in home runs (4); fourth in batting average (.384); fifth in runs scored (27); ninth in hits (33).
• She has been named the MEAC Player of the Week once (2/28) and MEAC Rookie of the Week three times (3/7, 3/21, 4/11).
• Last week, Imani Moore led the Spartans with a .667% batting average on 6-for-9 hitting. She collected a double and a triple against SCSU with two RBI. Moore is currently second in the MEAC in batting average (.407), third in hits (44), fourth in runs scored (28), seventh in triples (3), and eighth in on base percentage (.448) and OPS (.967).
• Alexis Robinson leads NSU in the circle this season. This season she has doubled her win total (12) from a year ago. She currently has a 2.19 ERA to go along with 53 strikeouts in 76.2 innings pitched. Her 12 wins is tied for 7^th in a season in the Spartan's Div. I era. She has been named the MEAC Pitcher of the Week twice (2/14, 2/28) this season.
• Joana Vallejo had a season and career-high 10 strikeouts in a complete game win over the Bulldogs last weekend. For the season, she leads both NSU and the MEAC in total strikeouts with 77 in the circle. She has collected two saves this season, also good for both on the team and MEAC. She has been named the MEAC Pitcher of the Week once this season (2/21).
• Alison Guckin is ranked high in all of Division I in stolen bases. While ranking first on the team and in the MEAC, her 28 stolen bases and 0.76 steals per game ranks sixth and eighth, respectively, in the country.
• Lily Potter is fast around the bases. She has 35 runs scored this year, a team and MEAC best. She is also patient at the plate, leading the Spartans in walks 17 (5^th in the MEAC) and second on the team and MEAC in hit by pitch (8).
• The 14 walks by Gabby Vaughan ranks third on the team and ninth in the MEAC. She is fourth on the team in home runs (3) and ninth in the conference.
• Tuli Iosefa ranks second in program history for career home runs. Her 24 is just five shy of the team record set by Kylee Lopez from 2016-19. She currently has four this season.
• As a team, the Spartans rank first in the MEAC and ninth in Division I for doubles (65).
• NSU leads the MEAC in several categories. The Spartans are first in wins (24), hits (303), runs (223), RBIs (195), walks (134), hit by pitch (134), stolen bases (80), and strikeouts (206),
• NCCU comes into the weekend ranked first in the MEAC as a team with 25 home runs.
• Jaden Davis leads the Eagles with a .349 batting average this season while also leading the team with 37 hits, 23 runs scored, eight stolen bases.
• Ashanti Eubanks pitched a no-decision in relief against Appalachian State on Tuesday, but leads NCCU in the circle with six of the Eagles nine wins this season. Against the Mountaineers, Eubanks pitched the final 3.0 innings and allowed 11 earned runs on four hits with seven walks.