April 25, 2011

By Brian Davis, Assistant Media Relations Director

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - For her outstanding recent efforts in helping No. 4 Tennessee softball (41-7, 17-5 Southeastern Conference) post a 3-1 record with wins over Radford and Mississippi State, sophomore pitcher Ivy Renfroe has been chosen as the Lady Vol Athlete of the Week for April 25.

The Jackson, Tenn., native received the accolade over UT student-athletes including track & field's Ellen Wortham and tennis' Brynn Boren. Wortham won the 400m hurdles at the Vanderbilt Invitational in 58.36 to remain undefeated at the distance in 2011 and ran the second leg of Tennessee's 4x100m relay unit which won in a season-best time of 44.73. Boren was chosen all-tournament in posting a 2-0 record at No. 3 singles while helping lead the Big Orange to its third consecutive SEC Women's Tennis Championship Final. Along the way UT defeated Kentucky, 4-0, on Friday and No. 9-ranked Georgia, 4-1, on Saturday.

A 6-0 right hander, Ivy Renfroe registered a perfect 2-0 record with a 0.00 ERA and 17 strikeouts in 15.1 innings of work over three appearances this past week in the circle. Included in her stellar efforts was her second career no-hitter as she blanked Mississippi State on Fri., April 22, 8-0 (6 inn.). The no-hitter marked the first for a Tennessee pitcher against a SEC opponent since Monica Abbott turned the feat against Georgia back in 2007. During Saturday's series finale versus Mississippi State, Ivy entered in relief of her sister Ellen Renfroe to start the third inning with UT trailing 3-2 and kept the Bulldogs off the scoreboard the rest of the way. With the addition of her time in the circle this past week, Ivy Renfroe extended her streak without allowing an earned run to 30.2 consecutive innings. Over her last seven appearances in the circle, she is 6-0 with a 0.35 ERA and 38 K's in 40 innings with victories over #2 Georgia, #21 LSU and Mississippi State.

The Big Orange returns to action facing a three-game weekend home series against Arkansas over April 29-May 1 at Lee Softball Stadium (Fri at 6 p.m. ET, Sat. and Sun. at 1 p.m. ET). All three contests are slated for radio broadcast via "The Sports Animal" (check either 99.1/99.3 FM or AM 990) with the audio feed and live web-streamed video available for free through UTLadyVols.com/allaccess. Live stats will be provided through Gametracker and periodical updates will be posted on Twitter. Check both http://twitter.com/LadyVol_Sftball and http://twitter.com/UTLadyVols for the most up-to-date information on Lady Vol softball.