BATON ROUGE, La. — Head Coach Brittney Williams, along with Aaliyah Zabala and Laila Clark, claimed three of the top yearly awards from the Southwestern Athletic Conference, the league announced Monday.
 
Williams was named Coach of the Year, Zabala earned Pitcher of the Year, and Clark was selected as Newcomer of the Year as Southern captured half of the conference's major awards, voted on by the league's head coaches. Zabala and Clark were also named First Team All-SWAC.
 
In her fifth season at the helm, Williams guided Southern to one of the most historic campaigns in program history. The Lady Jaguars closed the regular season by sweeping Prairie View on Senior Weekend to secure a program-record 32 wins. Southern currently holds the highest RPI ranking in the SWAC and enters postseason play as one of the league's hottest teams, having won its final seven conference series to earn the Western Division's No. 2 seed.
 
Under Williams' leadership, Southern boasts the second-lowest team ERA in the conference (3.48) and the second-most home runs (36). Nationally, the Lady Jaguars rank seventh in stolen bases (119) and ninth in triples (20), showcasing a balanced attack built on speed and power.
 
A major catalyst for that success has been Zabala's dominance in the circle. The sophomore leads the SWAC in wins (16) and shutouts (4) and owns the league's second-lowest ERA at 1.84. All three marks rank among the top 50 nationally, including a No. 22 ranking in ERA. Zabala also authored a 24.2-inning scoreless streak, the second-longest in the country this season.
 
She punctuated her award-winning campaign during the final weekend of the regular season with two complete-game victories, allowing just two earned runs while striking out nine. Earlier in the year, Zabala earned SWAC Pitcher of the Week honors after picking up two wins against Alcorn, including a complete-game shutout in the series opener and 4.1 scoreless innings of relief in game two. She also recorded a career-high 11 strikeouts in a complete-game one-hitter at Dillard.
 
Clark has been the engine of Southern's offense, leading the team in nearly every major category. Her .438 batting average ranks 45th nationally, while her 19 stolen bases and .773 slugging percentage both sit inside the top 100. In conference play, her nine home runs are tied for third-most in the SWAC.
 
The sophomore strung together 12 consecutive games with both a hit and an RBI, the second-longest such streak in the nation this season, from Feb. 22 through March 20. The Addis native has tallied 17 multi-hit games and 12 multi-RBI performances. Defensively, Clark has been just as impactful, recording 15 outfield assists, including nine via the rare 9-3 groundout, both the highest totals by an outfielder this season.

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