Vasquez bolstering Badgers

If Athena Vasquez was looking for a challenge in college, she couldn’t have picked a better one than going to the University of Wisconsin.

The Badgers weren’t nobodies in the collegiate softball world, having gone to the NCAA tournament twice prior to the Newport Harbor High graduate’s arrival in 2004. But the thought of the frozen tundra of Wisconsin as a softball destination was a foreign one back then, and even now when Vasquez and her teammates venture to the West Coast.

“I think we’re the underdogs going into most games,” Vasquez said. “When you think of Wisconsin, you’re not thinking about softball. You think of football or volleyball or hockey.

“We always have something to prove out there on the field and that gives us fuel against the other team.”

The Badgers have taken the fuel and gone places in recent years. Last year, they won 18 of their last 21 games to reach the NCAA tournament and hosted a regional for the first time. This season, they’ve won six of their last seven in preparation for the start of the Big Ten Conference season.

It’s that kind of success that drew Vasquez to Wisconsin after a standout career at Newport Harbor. The four-time Dream Team honoree wanted a place that had the potential for success, but wasn’t necessarily superstar-driven.

“It’s more exciting to be on a program where everybody has to add to the win, where it’s not just one superstar,” Vasquez said. “This year, it’s more of a team effort to win each game and I think that’s better than being at a huge program. I knew it would be more rewarding and I’d be more fulfilled.”

Actually, Vasquez was making contributions from the moment she came to the Madison campus. Then-coach Karen Gallagher installed her at third base, where she started all 57 games as a freshman and set a school record with 185 assists. She moved to second base for her sophomore year and also saw time at shortstop.

Along the way, Vasquez also showed her grit and determination after a late-season injury. During a rivalry game against Minnesota, she collided with a Golden Gophers baserunner and broke two ribs.

The injury was supposed to keep Vasquez sidelined until the NCAA tournament, but she returned for the Big Ten Conference tournament just a week later. Not only did she return in the tournament semifinals against eventual national champion Michigan, Vasquez homered for the Badgers’ only run in a 10-1 loss and helped pick off a Wolverine baserunner.

She played that game and the rest of the season wearing a flak jacket to protect the ribs.

“It was definitely a challenge each day with that injury,” Vasquez said. “I felt like I got hit by a car after every game. If I didn’t have the mental confidence, I don’t think I would’ve even risked it.”

No doubt that confidence came from her years at Newport Harbor, where she was a captain of the girls’ basketball team and starred on the Sailors’ field hockey team.

This season, Vasquez is back at third base under new coach Chandelle Schulte. She has started all 21 games thus far. She’s hitting a collegiate career-best .230. While she’s been productive at the plate ? 13 extra-base hits, including four home runs, and 29 RBIs in her first two seasons ? improving her offense has been a priority this year.

“Right now, I’m focused on getting my offense better,” Vasquez said. “I feel like I can do better. I can always do better.”

A history major, Vasquez said she’d like to become a teacher, either at the high school or collegiate level.

Either way, she’d prefer to be back home in Southern California.