GREENWOOD, Ind. – The Great Midwest Athletic Conference conducted interviews with Davis & Elkins head coach Kimberly Stiles and senior shortstop Kayla Whoolery as part of this year’s softball season preview.
 
Excited for the upcoming season, Stiles and her Senators pushed teams to the brink in extras during the G-MAC Championship as they aggressively competed with Trevecca Nazarene and Cedarville. Stiles will look to a lot of those same offensive players from last year’s roster to bring another successful spring to the program.
 
The Senators get ready for the spring season after being picked third in the G-MAC Preseason Coaches Poll, tied with Cedarville. D&E finished the 2015 season with an overall record of 21-23 and an 11-8 G-MAC record.
 
Stiles and her squad open the season on Friday, Feb. 19, when the Senators will travel to the East Coast to battle Winston-Salem State.
 
Hitting: Not to be confused with fellow D&E standout Taylor Morton, the G-MAC Women’s Soccer Defensive Player, Taylor Norton is a thunderous, run-producing bat in the middle of the lineup…Norton was a first-team all-conference selection with a .364 average, three home runs and 33 RBI…It all starts at the top with Whoolery, who thrives and excels in the leadoff role…She hit .322 and shined in the postseason…Two-way standout and just a sophomore, Alexandra “Allie” Lapallo had a .368 average with a team-high 39 RBI with seven homers…Danielle Norton returns from a one-year absence rehabbing from injury…Kaitlyn Huffman hit .281 as a freshman and started all possible 44 games…Stiles is confident that her offense will take them far in the season and conference tournament because of the strength in veteran bats.
 
Pitching: Lapallo is a true workhorse, logging 169.2 innings and going the distance for 20 complete games…Lapallo ended the season with a 2.27 ERA and accumulated 62 strikeouts…She logged three shutouts and was a two-time G-MAC Athlete of the Week…Returnees Victoria Krystynak (5-4, 4.60) and Norton are accompanied with newcomers Sierra Yowell and Sara Tobin to round out the deep D&E pitching staff.
 
Coaching: Stiles, a former NCAA Division I catcher at the University or Pittsburg, enters her sixth season as the head coach of the Senator softball program…She is also the College’s Senior Woman Administrator, Assistant AD and D&E Student-Athlete Advisory Committee program leader…While at D&E, she has been the only coach to tally three 20-win seasons for the program in the past 21 years.