Track, Softball standouts tie for honor after being named National Athletes of the Week
        
Track & field long jumper Tianna Madison and softball pitching ace Monica Abbott have been chosen Lady Vol Co-Athletes of the Week, the UT women’s media relations staff announced Wednesday.  The Big Orange student-athletes tied for the award after they each were named national athletes of the week for their respective sports.        For Madison, a sophomore from Elyria, Ohio, the local honor was her third award of the week.  She garnered United States Track Coaches Association (USTCA) National Female Athlete of the Week accolades on Monday and was chosen for Southeastern Conference Women’s Field Event Athlete of the Week on Tuesday.  The Lady Vol Athlete of the Week designation is the first of Madison’s career, and it marks the third time a track & field athlete has earned that acclaim in 2004-05.          Abbott, also a sophomore, picked up USA Softball National Player of the Week honors after registering a perfect 2-0 record with 27 strikeouts in 15 innings of work at the Louisville Slugger Desert Classic in Las Vegas, Nev.   This week’s Lady Vol award was the Salinas, Calif., product’s first of the season, but it marked the sixth time in her career she has been so honored after being chosen five times as a rookie.        Madison automatically qualified for the NCAA Indoor Championship meet in the long jump on Feb. 12 at the Powered by Tyson Invitational in Fayetteville, Ark.  Madison’s leap of 21-11.50/6.69m currently ranks as the best mark by a collegiate performer and is the second-longest measurement in the world this year.  It stands behind only the 22-5.25/6.84m effort of Sweden’s Carolina Kluft, the Olympic gold medallist in the heptathlon in 2004.  Madison’s jump also rates as the second-best ever charted indoors by a Lady Vol, ranking behind only the school-record leap of Dedra Davis (22-0.25/6.71m) at the 1994 NCAA Indoor Championships.         As for Abbott, the 6’3” lefty was initially summoned from the bullpen to throw an inning of hitless relief during freshman hurler Megan Rhodes’ (Nashville, Tenn.) 4-0 victory over No. 15 Baylor on Feb. 12.  The Louisville Slugger/National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) All-American, however, was truly at her best in blanking No. 22 Nebraska, 5-0, and in striking out the first 10 UW batters she faced on her way to an impressive 18-strikeout effort in a 2-1 triumph over No. 8 Washington on Feb. 13. The UT career strikeout leader now possesses 656 K’s, 49 complete games, 28 solo shutouts and 38 double-digit strikeout performances in her brief Lady Vol career.

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