SAN BRUNO, Calif. – The Santa Clara softball team swept the West Coast Conference major awards and eight players received All-WCC recognitions following a historic season where the team won the WCC Championship and earned a NCAA Tournament berth, both for the first time in program history.  
 
Cairah Curran won the Player of the Year, Taryn Clements was the Defensive Player of the Year, Cari Ferguson took home two awards, the Pitcher and the Freshman of the Year honors while Gina Carbonatto was named Coach of the Year. 
 
Curran, Clements and Ferguson were also three of six Broncos that were named the league's first team alongside Hope Alley, Hannah Edwards and Hazyl Gray. Rebecca Rubio was tabbed as a second team selection while Kyla Acres was named honorable mention. Ferguson was also named to the eight-player all-freshman team. 
 
The eight honorees are the most in Santa Clara history, topping the seven from last season. 
 
The all-conference voting and major awards were voted on by the six conference head coaches. 
 
In her sixth season at the helm, Carbonatto guided the team to a program record 32 wins as the Broncos reached unprecedented success this season.  They won all five WCC series to capture the WCC title in the final game of the season.  The 11 WCC wins also set a program record, including a win against her alma mater, Pacific, for her 114^th career victory to become the winningest coach in the 46 years of the program surpassing Marcy Crouch who won 113 games from 2000-04.  This is the first time she won the league's top coaching award. 
 
Curran was the table setter for the potent Bronco offense from her lead off position leading the conference in five offensive categories – batting average (.429), runs (49), hits (78), triples (5) and stolen bases (26).  Her 78 hits set a new WCC single season record eclipsing the mark previously set by BYU's Gordy Bravo who had 76 hits in 2015. 
 
The sophomore speedster started in all 52 games and displayed remarkable consistency, safely reaching base in 48 contests including getting a hit in 46 of them.
 
The Ewa Beach, Hawai'i native had 23 multi-hit games and recorded a 16-game hit streak. 
 
Curran is the second Bronco to be named WCC Player of the Year after Gray took home the honors last season. 
 
Clements became the fourth Santa Clara player to be named the league's top defender taking the mantle from Curran who won it a year.  Kelly Scribner was the inaugural award winner in 2014 and Ashley Trierweiler in 2021.

Clements did not commit a single error in 166 chances playing exclusively behind the dish defensively.  The sophomore from Seal Beach, California had 139 putouts and 27 assists while throwing out 12 of 31 would-be stealers for a 38.7 caught stealing percentage.  The 12 runners thrown out was the second highest mark in the league. 
 
At the plate, Clements finished 10^th in the conference with a .336 batting average and was eighth in on-base percentage at .419.  She finished in the top 10 in RBIs (tied for seventh, 32), doubles (tied for ninth with nine), walks (ninth, 22), sacrifice bunts (tied for second, eight) and sacrifice flies (tied for second, four). 
 
Ferguson showed remarkable poise inside the circle as the freshman dominated league play with a 5-1 record getting a win in each of the five WCC series.  She was the winning pitcher of record in the WCC clinching victory over Oregon State last Saturday. 
 
Her ERA was a microscopic 0.77 ERA, allowing just six runs (five earned) over 45 1/3 innings.  She appeared in 10 of the 15 conference games and tossed three shutouts against San Diego, Pacific and Saint Mary's in a nine inning effort.  The opponents batted just .182 off the right handed hurler.  On the year, the Long Beach, California native had am 8-9 record with a league-leading 1.92 ERA. 
 
Ferguson is the first Bronco to be named either Pitcher of the Year and Freshman of the Year. 


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