FRISCO, Texas — Northwestern State's Mattison Buster and Southeastern's Maria Detillier have earned this week's Jersey Mike's Southland Softball Player of the Week awards, the conference office announced Monday. Buster is a second-time winner this season while Detillier gets her first nod.
Softball Hitter of the Week: Maria Detillier, Southeastern – Sr. – 3B – Gramercy, La. (Lutcher High School)
Detillier led Southeastern with a .727 batting average in a 4-0 week that saw the Lady Lions extend their win streak to eight games with four run-rule victories. In Friday's 19-0 victory over HCU, she became the first Lady Lion to hit for the cycle
since the 2010 season, finishing 4-for-4 with four runs scored and four RBI. In the team's 11-3 victory over Southern Miss Wednesday, she finished two-for-three with an RBI. In an 8-0 win in the series opener Friday, she was 2-for-3 with a home run, an RBI and two runs scored. She was 0-for-1 with two walks and a run scored in an 11-3 victory over HCU in Saturday's series finale.
Honorable mention: JT Smith, Northwestern State
Softball Pitcher of the Week: Mattison Buster, Northwestern State – Jr. – RHP – Sulphur Springs, Texas (Como-Pickton High School)
Buster helped carry the Demons to a 3-1 record for week picking up all three wins and giving her a conference-leading 12 for the season, including two complete game victories in the series win against McNeese. In midweek action at Grambling, she threw 4.0 one-hit innings as part of NSU's 10-0 run-rule win, getting a combined shutout in the process. She threw a complete game in the series opener against McNeese on Friday, as the Demons walked off with a 7-6 win. Buster threw 5.2 perfect innings to open the series finale, facing just one batter over the minimum in a 10-inning, one-hit shutout to give NSU its first series win against the Cowgirls since 2015.
2026 Southland Conference Softball Players of the Week
| Date |
Hitter |
Pitcher |
| Feb. 9 |
Ellie Vance, SFA |
Hallie Burns, Southeastern |
| Feb. 16 |
Rylee Cloud, McNeese |
Molly Yoo, Nicholls |
| Feb. 23 |
Reagan Heflin, Nicholls |
Brookelyn Taylor, McNeese |
| March 2 |
Nyjah Fontenot, McNeese |
Mattison Buster, Northwestern State |
| March 9 |
Alexis Dibbley, McNeese |
Brookelyn Taylor, McNeese |
| March 16 |
Maria Detillier, Southeastern |
Mattison Buster, Northwestern State |
Southland weekly award winners are nominated and voted upon by each school's sports information director. Voting for one's own athlete is not permitted. To earn honorable mention, a student-athlete must appear on 25 percent of ballots.