SAN DIEGO – San Diego State softball head coach Kathy Van Wyk has announced the addition of Jenna Holcomb and Nicole Siess to the program. Holcomb come to The Mesa after earning all-SEC and all-region honors at Tennessee, while Siess transfers in from Mt. SAC and previously attending Purdue.
Holcomb and Siess make it eight Power 5 players to transfer to the Aztecs over the last two years, joining Maggie Balint (Oregon), Summer Hargett (Northwestern), Sara Lillie (Oregon State), Alyssa Pinto (Oregon/Ole Miss), Danielle Romanello (Florida) and Alexa Schultz (Oklahoma).
Holcomb batted .353 in her three-plus seasons at Tennessee from 2017-20, starting 163 games and playing in 194. She added 110 runs, 37 RBIs, nine doubles, five triples, 29 walks and 32 stolen bases, whiles posting a .391 on-base percentage. She'll have one year left to play softball at SDSU.
Holcomb racked up numerous awards with the Lady Volunteers, including being named second-team all-NFCA Region as a sophomore in 2018 when she hit .386 (61-for-158) with 37 runs. In 2019, Holcomb earned second-team all-SEC honors and making the SEC All-Defensive Team, hitting .329 (46-for-140) with 30 runs, while putting together a 21-game hitting streak during the season. She batted .365 (46-for-126) as a freshman with 37 runs and 18 RBIs, starting out the season with at least one hit in 10 straight games (longest streak by a freshman to start a season in program history) and ending the campaign with a hit in nine consecutive games. Holcomb also received recognition off the field, making the SEC Academic Honor Roll in 2018 and 2019, and earning Easton/NFCA Scholar-Athlete honors in 2017.
Holcomb, who picked Tennessee over UCLA, Washington and Stanford out of high school, played her prep ball at Los Alamitos High School along with SDSU's Schultz. She was named first-team all-county as a junior and senior, an all-CIF pick in 2015, the 2015 Sunset League Co-Player of the Year and a four-time all-league selection (first team as a sophomore, junior and senior). Additionally, Holcomb was a top 20 player in the FloSoftball Hot 100 List for 2016 and played in the 2016 PGF High School All-American Game. Holcomb, who played her club ball for national power So Cal Athletics and helped them make the PGF National Championship game in 2014 and 2015, also was an academic All-America selection at LAHS, and was named to the Long Beach Press Telegram's Dream Team in 2015.
Siess, meanwhile, spent last year at Mt. SAC, where she hit a robust .518 (29-for-56) with seven home runs, 29 RBIs, 26 runs, nine doubles, four triples and 10 stolen bases, while recording a .569 on-base percentage and 1.196 slugging percentage. The Mounties were off to an 18-1 start (9-0 in league play) with 10 run-rule victories before the season was ended prematurely because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Mt. SAC was the top-ranked team in the latest 3CFCA Coaches Poll, released Feb. 24.
Siess played at Purdue in 2018, appearing in 22 games with 12 starts. She hit .105 (2-for-19) with five runs.
Siess attended Rosary Academy in Fullerton, Calif., where she was a four-time all-league selection. Siess, who set the school's all-time home run record, hit north of .400 each season.
Balint (8-5, 2.40 ERA, 2 SV, 101 K, 81.2 IP, .188 opp. avg.), Hargett (.233, 1 HR, 3 2B, 7 RBI), Lillie (.290, 2 HR, 8 RBI, 14 R, 5 2B, 1 3B) and Schultz (.266, 15 RBI, 11 R, 4 2B) each were productive in their first season transferring to the Aztecs from a Power 5 school in 2020 before the COVID-19 pandemic ended the campaign right before Mountain West play started. Pinto, meanwhile, who was 1-for-3 at Ole Miss in 2019 before an injury sidelined her for the rest of the season, played at Consumnes River College in the spring-shortened season, hitting .245 with six RBIs, 17 runs and a .403 on-base percentage. Romanello started 31 games and played in 79 for the Gators, who went 105-29 (.784) over her two seasons with the program from 2018-19.
Holcomb, Romanello, Pinto and Siess will join a signing class that also includes incoming freshmen Makena Brocki, Jeweliana Perez and Elianna Reyes. Three-time first-team all-Mountain West selection Shelby Thompson and 2019 season-team all-league selection Marissa Moreno will also be back with the Aztecs as fifth-year seniors in 2021.
San Diego State finished 17-11 last season and was 37th (out of 298 schools) in the initial RPI, which is a mathematical calculation used to help determine each team's success, using a calculated strength of schedule and won-loss percentage. The Aztecs, who have won a Mountain West-best seven regular-season championships in the 20-year history of the league, were supposed to play host to defending league champion Colorado State the weekend of March 13-15 before the NCAA canceled the rest of spring competition on March 12.