Sophomore slump? Hah.
Entering the 2006 season, expectations were high for second baseman Danielle Lopez. Exploding onto the collegiate softball scene during her freshman year, she nabbed Rookie of the Year and Third Team All-American honors last season, but when the sophomore took the field in '06, questions abounded over whether she could extend her dominance into year two.
Each crack of the bat silenced them.
Lopez was rewarded for an out-of-sight offensive season with the NESCAC Player of the Year award following the 2006 season. Throughout the past four months, Lopez has overcome any preseason doubt and answered any preseason questions with a host of preposterous offensive statistics.
Numbers tell only part of the story, but it's a hell of a story.
Lopez led the team in every major offensive category, and she placed in the top-five in the league in slugging percentage (.723), on-base percentage (.450), runs, hits, RBI and total bases.
She improved her batting average from a solid and team-leading .379 last season to .383, again best on the team and sixth in the league. Moving down from leadoff to the three-spot, Lopez slammed 11 home runs and 12 doubles, making up for some lost power in the Jumbos' revamped lineup and contributing to her league-best 99 total bases.
Her 54 hits, 47 RBIs, 130 at-bats, 99 total bases and 43 runs scored all set new Tufts records. After just two seasons, her 19 home runs are second on the Tufts career list, behind 32 from both Courtney Bongiolatti (LA '05) and Lis Drake (LA '03), both former NESCAC Players of the Year.
"We talked early in the season about not worrying about living up to expectations and being process-oriented," coach Cheryl Milligan said. "This game can really humble you, and the opposing forces of needing to be great and needing to get the little things done are hard. D-Lo did a good job balancing those."
Lopez was just as valuable in the field as the only starting infielder from last season returning to her old position. The second baseman anchored a shifting infield that saw eight players rotating into first, short and third, almost all of whom were freshmen and
sophomores.
"I came into this season a little unsure of how I would do and definitely feeling some pressure, just as one of the only returning infielders that had played consistently last season," Lopez said. "But I have a great team that's very supportive and confident in me, which makes it easy to be confident in myself and not feel like it's all on me. There was a little anxiety at first, but it wore off as I got comfortable with this year's team."
This marks the sixth consecutive year that a Jumbo has taken the award. While Tufts' dynastic hold on the league title has come to an end - Williams defeated Tufts this year for its third consecutive NESCAC championship after a three-year Tufts hold - Lopez extended the Jumbos' hold on the top individual honor, following in the footsteps of departed seniors Courtney Bongiolatti and Katie Smith (LA '05).
Lopez, however, knows that nothing is a given in varsity sports, and sees the recognition as a challenge to take her game to the next level in 2007.
"When I heard that I had gotten it, I was really shocked because I still feel like I have a lot of growing to do, like I need to work on a lot of things," Lopez said. "I'm just going to take this for what it is and take next season as a chance to keep working on things."
Outside of a few quiet games, Lopez's bat seemed to churn out big hits on command. In the team's Apr. 6 win over Bridgewater State, the sophomore blasted a trio of home runs off Bears senior Kaitlyn Gambino, including a walk-off three-run shot in the bottom of the seventh that won the game for the Jumbos and sealed the two-game sweep.
And while her offensive stats made her a heavy favorite for the award, Lopez may have gotten an extra push from her defense. The sophomore cleaned up her glovework in the field this season, improving her fielding percentage from .949 last season to a sparkling .972 this year, best among the team's infielders and second (by .07) among NESCAC second basemen.
She turned 16 double plays on a Jumbo team that had 21 twin-killings, tied for sixth-best in the nation when averaged over the number of games the Jumbos played.
None of that means that Milligan won't continue to push Lopez. The coach has had three NESCAC Players of the Year in her three years as head coach of the Jumbos, and expects Lopez to continue to get better.
"D-Lo still has things to work on, and if we stop and say 'did we reach our potential?' the answer to that is always 'No,'" Milligan said. "Potential seems like a final word to me; we ask our players every day, every week, every season to get better, and we'll have a list for D-Lo, too."
Lopez couldn't be readier for the challenge.
"I still think I have a lot of things I have to work on," she said. "I'm just not the type of player to ever really be satisfied with my performance."
