LA MIRADA, Calif. --- Biola University Softball made a strong impression during its first season in the PacWest Conference, leading the league for the first third of the conference season and finishing above .500.
 
The Eagles' efforts were rewarded on Tuesday when the conference office announced its annual awards and All-PacWest teams. Biola had three student-athletes land on the all-conference teams and Areana Ramos earned the conference's Newcomer of the Year Award.
 
Kayla Neff earned All-PacWest second team honors, getting recognized as the second-best catcher in the whole conference. Ramos and freshman hurler Paige Austin both landed on the third team.
 
Ramos was the best new player in the conference and one of just nine total outfielders to earn all-conference honors. She became the third Biolan this year to earn a major conference award, joining Volleyball's Tess Van Grouw and basketball's Isaiah Jones. Ramos had a career year by all measures. She switched from right field to center field this season and played amazing defense, including racking up six outfield assists (most to home plate), but she really shined brightest on offense. Ramos hit a career-best nine balls out of the park this season, to rank fifth in the PacWest. Six of her nine HR came against conference foes. Thirty-four of her team-best 61 hits came during conference play. She's tied for third in the conference in hits. She also ranks top-10 in slugging (.586) and runs (38).
 
Ramos was the team's most consistent hitter all year long, hitting .353 and scoring more runs and driving in more runs (35) than any of her teammates. She's one of only five players in the conference this year to top 100 total bases, joining Bailey Gaspar, Hannah Thieroff, Caitlyn Lloyd and Aurora Adams – three of four of those players landed on the all-conference first team. Ramos racked up 20 multiple-hit games and 11 multiple-RBI games, including four outings with at least three RBI. She was the only player to see time in center field for Biola this year, starting all 52 games.
 
Neff was one of just three catchers to earn all-conference marks, earning the recognition along with the backstops from Dixie State and Holy Names. Neff was the full-time starting catcher for two of the top-10 strikeout pitchers in the PacWest. She led Biola's staff to the third-most strikeouts in the conference and helped the staff to top-5 marks in wins, opponent's batting average, shutouts, ERA and fewest HR allowed. Aside from her premier abilities in leading a pitching staff she is a tremendous fielder (.982) with a cannon behind the plate (11 runners caught stealing - 2nd most in PacWest). Add to that her offensive numbers and she's the perfect catcher.
 
Neff hit over .300 for the second year in a row (.303) and scored 20+ and drove in 20+ while hitting anywhere from 2nd to 7th in the Eagles' potent offense. Neff appeared in 49 of Biola's 52 games, starting 41 of them behind the plate.
 
Austin was one of six pitchers to earn all-conference honors, celebrating her fantastic first campaign for BU. She won 13 of her first 15 decisions, before ultimately finishing the year 15-7 overall with a 2.07 ERA. Austin had at least one strikeout in every one of her 37 appearances and ended the year with 154 Ks (third in the conference). She ended the year top-10 in the conference in ERA, opposing batting average (.196), innings (138.2), strikeouts, wins (15) and saves (6). Her six saves is the second-best number in program history and most since 2001.
 
The Eagles' finished in seventh place during their first season in the PacWest, but have reasons to be positive about the future, losing just two seniors this year and posting a league record of 14-10 against teams returning to the conference next year.