After a 1-3 start to the season, the UMass Minutewomen have rebounded and currently sit in first place in the Atlantic 10 standings with an undefeated record in conference play.
A major catalyst to the Minutewomen’s success has been senior Jena Cozza, whose veteran leadership and offensive prowess have made equally impressive marks on her team.
Cozza sits third in the nation with a batting average nearing .500, a mark that she has reached more than a couple of times this season. Her twelve home runs are tied for 37th nationally with, ten behind Katie Prebble, the nation’s leader in the category.
After an injury-shortened 2017 season, Cozza’s fifth and final season has allowed her the opportunity to finally live up to the full potential that she had shown earlier in her career.
Named first-team all-Region and the A-10 conference’s rookie of the year after her freshman season in 2014, Cozza’s hot start to her career was stymied by a season-ending injury suffered in the first game of her sophomore year.
In 2016, her first year back from the injury, Cozza again earned all-region honors, to go with a first-team all-conference nod. In addition to a .400 batting average, Cozza hit a then-career-high eleven home runs that same year.
Further injury prevented her 2017 and redshirt junior season from starting until mid-year, but the New York native made her presence known once she was inserted back into the batting order, posting a team-leading .380 batting average in just seventy-one at-bats.
The 2018 season has been a career year for Cozza, as the collegiate portion of her career nears its end. In addition to holding the nation’s best batting average, Cozza leads the Atlantic 10 conference in eight statistical categories and her twelve home runs are a new single-season career high.
As her career winds down, there is no doubt about the impact that Cozza has had on the Minutewomen program.
