Running her record to 3-0 with victories over Pacific and Lewis & Clark, Linfield pitcher Karina Paavola (Jr., Kelso, Wash.) has earned recognition as the conference’s Softball Pitcher Student-Athlete of the Week.

The honor was announced Tuesday by the conference office after a vote of the league’s sports information directors. The junior righthander from Kelso, Wash., earned the second NWC Pitcher of the Week award of her career.

In last week’s series-opening game against Pacific, Paavola struck out 10 batters while fashioning a two-hit shutout. Working herself into a second-inning, bases-loaded jam, she escaped by recording a strikeout and coaxing pop out on consecutive at-bats to end the inning.

Paavola added a second victory over the weekend, combining with reliever Maddy Dunn (Fr., Lake Oswego, Ore.) for a five-inning 8-0 blanking of Lewis & Clark. In that game, Paavola notched a pair of strikeouts in three innings of work.

For the season, Paavola has posted a 2.58 earned run average with 16 strikeouts in 19 innings.

With last week’s two victories, Paavola rose to ninth all-time at Linfield for career pitching victories. Her 35th career win moved her ahead of former Wildcats standout Liz Coburn (1998-2001). Her 261 career strikeouts moved her past graduated All-American Lauren Harvey (2009-12) to No. 5 on Linfield’s career ladder.

The Wildcats, ranked 12th in the most recent NFCA Top 25 poll, head to the state of Georgia this week to compete in the NFCA Leadoff Classic. Linfield opposes Ithaca (N.Y.) and Gustavas Adolphus (Minn.) in its first two games of the three-day invitational tournament.