Courtesy of GoCobbers.com, Release: April 16, 2007

MOORHEAD, Minn. (4/16/06)-- Concordia senior shortstop Kelli Niess (Rice, Minn./Sauk-Rapids HS) was named the MIAC Player of the Week for her record-breaking week in the Cobbers' past six games. It is the first time in her career that she has won the weekly award. She is the second Concordia layer in as many weeks to win an MIAC award. Last week teammate Jill Reinert (Watertown, Minn./Watertown-Mayer HS) was named the MIAC Pitcher of the Week.

Niess broke two career school records last week in helping Concordia win five of their six MIAC games last week. On Monday against St. Kate’s, she set the program record for career steals and on Saturday against St. Olaf she became the school’s all-time hit leader.

In the six games last week she batted .476, stole six bases, scored five runs and drove in four. She also made several acrobatic plays in the field and posted a fielding percentage of .969 in handling 32 chances.

Against St. Kate’s, she stole three bases to break the school record for most stolen bases in a career. She went 3-for-9 and stole three bases in Concordia’s split against the Wildcats. On Saturday in the team’s sweep over St. Olaf, she went 5-for-8, scored two runs and drove in two. She also drove in the game-winning run in the bottom of the 10th inning in the second game. In Concordia’s sweep over Augsburg on Sunday, she went 2-for-4 and made several outstanding plays in the field.

Niess currently leads Concordia in hitting and on-base average in 2007. She has a batting average of .424 and on-base percentage .465. She is fourth in the MIAC in hitting in overall games.