ASHLAND – Piper Love was named top softball player and Katie Machado top pitcher when the Cascade Conference's Rize Laboratory Athlete of the Week voting was announced Monday by the CCC office.

Love, a junior catcher, and Machado, a senior pitcher were integral to No. 2-ranked SOU's 4-0 trip to Arizona over the weekend. It made the Raiders 7-2 entering their final week of non-conference play.

Love went 8-for-13 with four doubles and four RBIs on the road trip. Over her last five games, she has posted four multi-hit games, two three-hit games and six total doubles. Her team-best batting average sits at .485.

Machado went 2-0 with a pair of complete games and an eight-out save, earning the award for the second week in a row. She had one of the best starts of her career on Friday against Arizona Christian, a two-hit shutout in which she struck out three and
didn't issue a walk for a 1-0 win. In her last five appearances, she has allowed two earned runs across 26 2/3 innings. Overall, she's 4-0 with a 1.60 ERA.