Last week, Sonoma State University’s Softball player Anna Zoia-Buescher won the CCAA (California Collegiate Athletic Association) player of the week award. She finished the week off with a .700 BA, two doubles, one home run, two RBIs, four runs, two stolen bases and two three-hit games. This week, we discuss where the SSU softball team is headed as their season wages on. 

  Zoia-Buescher is excelling in the field and in the classroom as an economics major with a business administration minor and is in her fourth year at Sonoma State, but she plans on taking a fifth year. She lives the typical student-athlete life including many hours spent in the library studying and working to keep their grade up. To add to this, she picks up hours for her job whenever she can. Other parts of Zoia-Buescher’s day-to-day life includes finding herself some “me time.” Considering how fast a student-athlete’s life is, it’s necessary to find time to reset, collect yourself and breathe. For her, this looks like spending time with teammates off the field and seeing friends from home, considering she’s a local that’s never too difficult. 

  When asked why she plays the sport of softball, Zoia-Buescher brought it way back to when she was eight years old and first found the sport. She fell in love with it and has been playing ever since. Her love for the sport stems from multiple factors; how healthy and active it keeps her, along with the challenges that the sport brings mentally and physically. “I was a junior transfer from Santa Rosa Junior College last year and I never thought I would be where I am today, but here I am, living the dream,” Zoia-Buescher added. 

  Zoia-Buescher was asked how she felt about receiving not her first, but her second CCAA Player of the Week award, she said it was an honor to receive it. “I love playing with this team because we have an amazing culture that facilitates such a supportive and competitive atmosphere,” adding that this allows every team member to grow. “This group is like no other; so relentless, so passionate, so electric. I have never felt so alive… playing with a team full of such amazing women.” This type of mentality is likely to lead this team far this season, Zoia-Buescher commented that her team is more than prepared to take it all the way. 

 This past weekend, SSU Softball competed against the Dominican University of California in a doubleheader on Friday. The Seawolves won their first game against the Penguins 1-0 and won the second game 2-1 to finish the night off, with Zoia-Buescher scoring the winning run. The softball program is ranked seventh in batting, pitching and second in fielding in the CCAA. Now, with a 4-1 record, Zoia-Buescher and the rest of her team are preparing for their next doubleheader tomorrow against Holy Names University at home. The first game will start at 11 a.m.