May 18, 2000
The 2000 San Diego State softball team completed its first season in the Mountain West Conference with a 35-27 record overall and a 13-7 mark in league contests.
The season started slow for the young Aztec squad as SDSU played 12 of their non-conference games against nationally-ranked opponents. After a tough schedule early, the Aztecs came around quickly with several upsets including victories over No. 14 Iowa, No. 16 CSU Fullerton and No. 22 Illinois-Chicago.
The Scarlet and Black would carry that momentum to conference action where it swept three of five conference opponents in the regular season. The Aztecs' conference record was good enough for third place and a third-seed in the conference tournament held in Salt Lake City. SDSU would falter in the tournament, dropping games to UNLV and Colorado State -- two teams the Aztecs had beaten four times in the regular season.
Although the season had a disappointing and abrupt ending, there were several bright spots. Junior hurler Sandra Durazo, sophomore center fielder Kellie Nordhagen and sophomore second baseman Sarah Hershman were all named All-MWC. Head coach Kathy Van Wyk picked up her 100th victory on April 9th, when SDSU defeated 16th-ranked CSU Fullerton, her alma mater, by a 1-0 margin. The 35 victories is the most in school history and the winning percentage of .565 is a school record. The 2000 team set other records including doubles (70), runs (216), RBI (174) and Total Bases (550).
Individuals etched their names into the Scarlet and Black record books as well. Durazo is SDSU's all-time leader in wins (57) and games started (93) while setting single-season records for wins (25) and appearances (46). Nordhagen owns single-season records in batting average (.391), runs (40), hits (81) doubles (14) and total bases (102).