VALDOSTA, Ga. – Valdosta State softball sophomore Chloe Eichelberger continued to add to her list of accolades this week as she was named Louisville Slugger/National Fastpitch Coaches Association Division II Player of the Week.  
 
This marks the first national honor for Eichelberger this season and the first for VSU, while it is the second-straight week a Gulf South Conference softball player has earned national player of the week.  Montevallo's Becca Benton earned the prestigious honor last week.  
 
VSU is no stranger to having a NFCA National Player/Pitcher of the Week as this marks Eichelberger's first national weekly honor.  Former Blazer Anniston Gano earned the honor on Apr. 23, 2024, and Abby Sulte on Feb. 27, 2024.  Prior to that, Sulte earned the honor on Mar. 14, 2023, while former Blazer Nikki Pennington was named National Player of the Week on Mar. 31, 2021.  From a pitching standpoint, former Blazer hurler Samantha Richards was the last pitcher to earn the honor for the Blazers on Mar. 3, 2021 and Mar. 8, 2022.  
 
Eichelberger also earned Gulf South Conference Player of the Week honors and was named Steel's Jewelry Blazer Female Athlete of the Week.  
 
A native of Tampa, Fla., Eichelberger had an outstanding week as she went 6 for 8 from the dish in a designated player/pinch-hitter role for the Blazers in a three-game sweep of Trevecca Nazarene to begin GSC play.  She hit .750 for the series, while reaching base at a .778 clip with one walk and slugged 2.000.  Eichelberger scored three runs with one double, three home runs and drove in seven.
 
In the opener against TNU, Eichelberger hit a pinch-hit two RBI single giving VSU a 5-4 lead in the seventh as the Blazers went on for a 7-4 win.  In the second game on Friday, she hit two home runs and went 2 for 3 from the dish with two runs scored, three RBI and a walk.  For the finale on Saturday, she went 3 for 4 with a run scored, a double, a home run and two RBI.  Her round-tripper in the third gave VSU a 5-0 lead.
 
This season, Eichelberger is hitting .688 on 11 of 16 from the plate with three runs scored, one double, three home runs and eight RBI.  She has walked twice and is reaching base at a .750 clip, while registering a hit in each of the last seven games she has played.  
 
VSU opens the 2026 home slate this Saturday and Sunday in a pivotal Gulf South Conference series against No. 24 UAH at Steel's Diamond at Blazer Park.  The series is set for a doubleheader beginning at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 28, followed by a single game Sunday, Mar. 1 beginning at 1 p.m.  Both VSU and UAH enter the series at 3-0 in GSC in play.  VSU is 7-6 overall and UAH is 17-3 overall and has won ten-straight.