LA MIRADA, Calif. --- Biola Softball had such a fine season in its first year under Head Coach Nikki Udria that the Eagles doubled their number of All-PacWest selections from 2018. The Eagles also doubled their number of major conference award-winners, highlighted by Kayla Neff taking home the prestigious honor of PacWest Conference Player of the Year.

Neff becomes just the third Biola student-athlete in any sport to earn conference player of the year during Biola's NCAA Division II era. She joins volleyball's Sierra Bauder and cross country's Gabe Plendcio on that distinguished list.

Missy Poti gave the Eagles two major award winners as she took home Co-Defensive Player of the Year honors. With the addition of Poti and Neff, Biola has now won seven individual major awards in the PacWest.

Neff's work landed her on the All-PacWest first team at the catcher position. She's joined on the first team by senior Hailey Boyett who was selected as the first team DP and earned her first-ever all-conference selection.

Poti landed on the All-PacWest second team at first base, also bringing home her first all-conference honors. She was joined on the second team by sophomore Paige Austin, who's two-for-two in her career in terms of All-PacWest honors. She moved up from her 2018 third team selection.

Areana Ramos is the other two-time All-PacWest selection for Biola. Her work in center field landed her on the third team, despite missing more than one-fourth of the season due to injury. She's joined on the third team by super sophomore and first-time selection, Ruth Munoz.

Biola Softball had a stellar year and qualified for the National Christian College Athletic Association World Series for the first time. The Eagles went 24-16 overall and were 19-11 in PacWest Conference play to finish fourth in the PWC.

They finished in a three-way tie with Hawaii Hilo and Azusa Pacific for second place in terms of losses (11 total), but rain caused teams to play an unequal number of conference games to skew the final standings.

Neff had a career year and led the Biola offense by putting up gaudy numbers from start-to-finish this season. She was the most consistent hitter in the conference, leading the way with a .425 batting average. She was second in the conference in both on-base percentage (.482) and slugging (.693).

She finished the year with career-best numbers in batting average, runs (28), hits (54), homers (6), RBI (28), slugging, fewest strikeouts (7), OBP, steals (2) and fewest errors (6).

While putting up numbers like that she was also holding down the most demanding position on the diamond and making it look easy. Neff worked with four different pitchers this season and caught 32 of Biola's 40 contests. She helped the pitching staff transition to its first season using Own the Zone wristbands and helped the pitchers compile a stellar 2.82 staff ERA while finishing second in the conference with 199 strikeouts.

"I think Kayla worked extremely hard over the summer, during the fall and really stepped into all that it means to be an upperclassman," said Udria. "She has always had leadership qualities, but in my eyes, it looked like she realized her leadership potential this year when our team really needed it. She really embraced that throughout the year. It is such a blessing for her to be able to receive this award and I am sure she would say the same."

Boyett earned herself the title of being the conference's best at the designated player spot with her first team selection. The senior from San Diego played a vital role in Biola's offense, helping the Eagles lead the PacWest by a wide margin with a team batting average of .308. Boyett hit a career-best .374 with 37 hits while appearing in 34 of the Eagles' 40 games. Like Neff, Boyett also had career-best marks in slugging (.545) and on-base percentage (.427).

When she did appear in the field (16 games at 1B), Boyett was perfect. She went the whole year without registering an error and had 96 putouts and six assists. Boyett finished third on the team in homers (3) and third in doubles (6). Her 10 total extra-base hits are also third-best on the team.

"Hailey Boyett has grown so much as a player over these past couple years I have been here and I credit that to all of her hard work," said Udria. "She is constantly putting in extra hours on the field and making adjustments as we go. Hailey is always willing to listen and try new things and I think that is why she has had so much success this year."

Missy Poti worked her way back from a serious injury in the fall and went out and put up a career season during her spring season. Defensive Player of the Year honors and All-PacWest second team selection join alongside her team comeback player of the year honors to give Poti plenty to help her remember a fantastic senior season.

She played the two corner infield positions with regularity for Biola, starting 24 of Biola's 40 games at first base with some third base and DP mixed in. She recorded 143 putouts and 17 assists to go with just one error, which helped her tie with Concordia Irvine's catcher Mackenzie Graham as the league's best fielder.

Offensively, Poti was one of Biola's most clutch performers. She finished the regular season second on the team with 22 RBI and scored 15 runs despite having fewer than 100 at-bats on the year. She had eight doubles and limited herself to just seven strikeouts to provide some pop in the latter-middle part of Udria's lineup. Her 22 RBI is double her previous career-best.

"Missy has worked extremely hard this year coming off of her injury," said Udria. "She was out on the field for countless hours getting extra reps in and it is so amazing to see her be blessed with this award after all the hard work she put in. Missy is the life of the party on our team and her presence on the field is what encourages, supports and manage our infield."

Paige Austin logged 14 fewer appearances in 2019, but that equated to only 20 fewer innings pitched thanks to the sophomore's ability to log a whole lot of innings in each of her starts. Not only was she second in the conference with seven complete-game shutouts, but she threw 12 total complete games. That means she went the distance more often than she did not throughout the season, which meant a lot to this team.

Austin compiled a record of 11-6 this season with a minuscule 1.49 earned run average. That's an improvement of more than half a run from her already impressive 2.07 freshman year ERA. The team won 15 of the 23 games she pitched in, including going 7-1 over her final eight appearances of the season with Austin allowing zero runs in seven of those eight outings.

Perhaps her most impressive outing of the year was her last one when she went eight shutout innings with 10 strikeouts to lift Biola to a 1-0 road win over Azusa Pacific that knocked APU out of the NCAA regionals.

The sophomore finished the year allowing just one homerun and holding opposing batters to a .171 batting average. Amazingly, in her 256+ innings of work over the last two seasons Austin has allowed just four homeruns total. She's faced over 1,140 batters in that span.

"Paige has been battling all year after having an amazing season last year. She has been pushing herself to new limits to continue to get better as a pitcher and to help lead this team in any way she can," said Udria. "It has been amazing to see her work into the leadership position that comes with being a pitcher and I think that she is beginning to thrive in the pressure and big situations."

Areana Ramos closed out her remarkable four-year career with another exceptional season. She missed the entire first month of the season due to injury and made a huge impact upon her return. The Eagles were 5-7 when she was out and went 19-9 once she made her return to the lineup.

She was last season's PacWest Newcomer of the Year and adds all-conference third team honors in 2019 to bring her to a total of two all-conference awards in her career. We still think she should've earned all-GSAC honors in 2017, too, so let's call it three.

This year, Ramos was as consistent as ever in center field, recording 29 putouts and one assist with just two errors. She never had a single season in her career where she recorded more than two errors. That's impressive considering she's appeared in 163 games for BU and started 152 of those.

She's most known for her offense though, where she's been a .347 hitter throughout her years at Biola and has 75+ career RBI and runs scored. This year she hit .349 with 30 hits, 16 runs and 16 RBI. She had just as many walks as she had strikeouts, resulting in an even .400 in on-base percentage.

One-third of her 30 hits went for extra bases with six doubles, three homers and her third career triple. She set a career-high for stolen bases this season with seven. That gives her 10 total in the last two years after having zero steals through her sophomore season.

"Aree has had a great year despite the slow start to her senior season. She has always been a leader on our team and continues to make an impact for our program," said Udria. "We are so proud of all the hard work she has put in and it is so awesome to see it pay off."

Ruth Munoz rounds out Biola's all-conference selections by landing on the third team for the first time as the third baseman. The sophomore started 32 games at third and even had one start at shortstop as he continued to do whatever was needed for Udria and these Eagles. It was a smooth transition for Munoz after she played five different positions during her freshman season with zero appearances at third base.

Munoz was just as versatile in the batter's box, starting at seven different positions in the Eagles' starting lineup. She finally settled in the no. 2 spot late in the season, starting 13 of her 33 games in that position.

She had the longest hitting streak of any Eagle this season, recording hits in 12-straight games from March 20 through April 25. She also currently has the longest reach-base streak of 14 games. She'll look to extend that in two weeks when the Eagles play at the NCCAA World Series in Botetourt, Va.

Munoz ended the regular season with a .386 batting average, raising her batting average by 50 points with that long hitting streak. She had 39 hits in 101 at-bats and was second on the squad with 24 runs scored. Munoz was the Eagles' biggest threat on the base path too, stealing 10 bases in 12 attempts.

"Ruth is one of the hardest working players I have ever met. She is always bought in," said Udria. "Her desire to learn new information about the game is what I think makes her so successful. She is a natural born leader and people navigate and look to Ruth for direction. Ruth is such an important part of our team."

Six all-conference honors is the most Biola Softball has ever had in one year. It surpasses the 50-13 2001 team's five All-GSAC honors. Kayla Neff's Player of the Year award is the first conference player of the year honor in program history. Reba DePriest (2014, 15) and Jessica Logsdon (2001) won the equivalent of the award for pitchers (GSAC Pitcher of the Year).

Biola continues its season with a push for a NCCAA National Championship. The NCCAA Softball World Series runs May 15-17. We anticipate the full schedule and field to be announced by the NCCAA later this week.