Irvine, CA- The Big West announced today that UC Riverside's Chelsea Ponce has been named the conference Softball Pitcher of the Week and Haley Harris named the conference Player of the Week for games played March 16-22.

It is the first time since the 2006 season that the Highlanders swept the weekly award when third baseman Melissa Sanchez and pitcher Stephanie Marshall took home the honors.

This is the second weekly honor for the Ponce and she is the only Highlander to be named Pitcher of the Week twice in a single-season. This also marks Harris' first weekly award for the blue and gold (View list of UC Riverside's all-time Big West Player of the Week honorees).

Over the weekend, Ponce threw the program's first no-hitter in its Division I-era in a 7-0 shutout against Bethune Cookman. In the same game, the Highlanders set a new record for single-season wins, earning their 26th victory of the year.

The redshirt junior went undefeated over the weekend with a 4-0 record, including her first save of the season. In the tournament opener, she threw a complete game shutout with 11 strikeouts to beat Fairleigh Dickinson,  3-0. At the end of the LMU Invitational, Ponce registered a 0.27 ERA and held her opponents to a combined .076 batting average.

She boasts an astounding 20-3 record to lead the nation and the conference in wins, also ranking at the top of the conference with a 1.10 ERA.

Sophomore Haley Harris spearheaded the Highlanders' efforts from the batter's box notching 11 hits in 18 at bats for a .611 batting average. She posted a 1.000 slugging percentage for the week.

The second baseman hit safely in all five games and scored at least one run in four. Harris also drove in five runs. She started the weekend pounding out three hits in three attempts that included a double RBI in the Highlanders first win over FDU. In UCR's 7-0 shutout against Bethune Cookman she recorded another double and a triple, scoring twice.

In game one on the final day of the LMU Invitational, Harris smashed a two-run home run en route to a three-RBI showing in a 5-1 victory over Seattle. She rounded out her weekend with three hits in a 10-2 win against host, LMU.

Defensively, Harris posted 10 putouts and 15 assists without committing an error.