Kane County Reporter

Sabrina Rabin always has been fast.

 

In addition to earning numerous accolades in softball at St. Charles North High School in St. Charles, Illinois, she also lettered in indoor track and holds the school record in both the 50- and 55-meter events. She's now brought that blinding speed to the Northwestern University (NU) softball team.

NU's starting centerfielder and leadoff hitter stole 40 bases this past season for the Wildcats, and her 68 career steals in just two years already places her seventh on the school's all-time stolen-base list.

And just for good measure, she also hit .358, scored 54 runs and finished with an on-base percentage of .404 this past season. It was this ability the electrify the NU offense from the No. 1 place in the order that drove the Wildcats' offense this year.

"She is so fast," Doug Meffley, director of digital and social communications at NU, told the Kane County Reporter. "She's been our leadoff hitter since the day she stepped on campus."  

That immediate incorporation into the lineup for Rabin last year as a freshman was no small accomplishment for an incoming student. The current sophomore was replacing a titan on the field for the Wildcats.

"She had a tough task," Meffley said. "She replaced a player named Emily Allard who's now playing professionally for the Chicago Bandits. Emily was our leadoff hitter for four years, and Sabrina just stepped right in and we haven't missed a beat."

Despite that smooth transition at the leadoff spot, NU didn't quite reach their preseason expectations this year. The school has made the Women's College World Series five times, including making the final game in 2006, so the program has made a habit of winning consistently. And although the Wildcats did finish 15-8 in Big Ten Conference play, they were only 27-28 overall, which included a loss in the Semifinals of the Big Ten tournament and a 1-2 record in the NCAA Athens regional.

The grueling season featured 15 games against nationally ranked teams, with 39 of its opponents ranked in the top 100. They played the 16th hardest schedule in the NCAA and had the 11th strongest out-of-conference schedule. It was this gauntlet of top competition that NU was unable to navigate as well as they would have liked.

"We certainly had higher expectations than that," Meffley said. "It's just something that you can run into with a tough schedule, and this year, the issue was we had leads on so many teams, good teams, and we kind of struggled to close the door. But they were able to win a lot of tight games down the stretch when they had to make a run to get into the tournament."

The expectations are always high at a storied school such as NU, so the team expects to be right back in the thick of things next season. Rabin, who was All-Big-Ten second team and NFCA All-Region second team this past year, is expected to help lead the charge.  Meffley expects the already-decorated Rabin to get even better, with two more years of development ahead of her.

"The sky is really kind of the limit moving forward," Meffley said. "She has the talent and the speed to force defenses to make mistakes, but this year, she was able to play more situationally.

"In RBI situations, she's taking the ball the other way. She's doing more power-slapping than she did last year, and she even hit a home run. She's really developing in terms of the nuances of what she's able to do with the bat."  

And it's not just Rabin's offense that's impressed; she's no slouch in the outfield either.

"Her strength is her range," Meffley said. "She's able to make the routine and the spectacular."

If she can keep making both types of plays, all the while continuing to improve behind the plate and in center field, the sky really will be the limit for Sabrina Rabin.