ST. LOUIS – Illinois State's senior second baseman and team captain, Emme Olson, has been selected to the Missouri Valley Preseason All-Conference Team while the Redbirds have been picked to finish sixth in the conference as announced by the league on Friday.
Last season, the Redbirds captured their 14th regular-season title with a 17-5 record in conference play and an overall record of 31-10. Illinois State is set to play a challenging preseason slate before heading into a competitive conference schedule.
Returning two key offensive players in Olson and Kaili Chval, Illinois State received a total of 47 points in the preseason poll. Tallying five first-place votes and a total of 93 points, Northern Iowa was selected as the predicted winner of the MVC for the 2022 season, the program earning an at-large bid into the NCAA tournament in 2021. Also in front of the Redbirds were Southern Illinois, Missouri State, Drake and Indiana State. Southern Illinois was the 2021 MVC Tournament champion and earned an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament last season. Rounding out the bottom of the preseason poll was Bradley, Evansville, Loyola and Valparaiso.
Olson has started every game for the Redbirds for the past three seasons, tallying a total of 115 starts. In 2021, she took over the starting role at second base, earning herself a place on the All-MVC Second Team. She ended the season with a .318 batting average which was third overall for the Redbirds. Olson was tied for most doubles on the team (8) while also ranking second in runs scored (22) and RBI (28). She crushed four home runs on the season, hitting one in back-to-back games against UT Martin, a team the Redbirds will face in 2022, and Northern Kentucky.
ON DECK
Illinois State begins its 2022 campaign on Thursday, Feb. 10 at USF with first pitch at 4:30 p.m. CT before battling No. 13 Michigan, No. 5 Florida and Kansas City in the rest of the South Florida Tournament (Feb. 11-12).
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