Virginia Tech softball pitcher Angela Tincher earned plenty of awards this spring while leading the Hokies to their first appearance in the Women's College World Series. Yesterday, she added ACC female athlete of the year to that haul.

Tincher was the USA Softball national player of the year while leading the country in strikeouts (679 and 13.8 per seven innings) and earned-run average (0.63). She threw a no-hitter in March in Tech's 1-0 win over the United States national team, which has won the past three Olympic gold medals and had won 185 pre-Olympic exhibitions dating to 1996.

She also was named ESPN the Magazine Academic All-American of the Year for softball, graduating with a 3.84 grade-point average as a finance major.

"My four years in the ACC were more than I could ever have asked for, and to be recognized by such a great conference is a honor for me," Tincher said.

She is playing this summer with the Akron Racers of the National Pro Fastpitch league. She has a 9-4 record, 94 strikeouts and a 1.69 ERA. She is second in the league in wins, strikeouts and ERA. She is planning to return to Tech this fall to attend graduate school and work as a graduate assistant for coach Scot Thomas.

Other candidates for ACC female athlete of the year included Duke's Amanda Blumenhurst, national golfer of the year; North Carolina's Rachel Dawson, national field hockey player of the year; and Mami Yamaguchi, national soccer player of the year. Tincher is the first softball player to win the award.

The male athlete of the year was North Carolina men's basketball player Tyler Hansbrough. Virginia tennis player Somdev Devvarman, who won NCAA titles as a junior and senior, finished second. Voting was done by members of the Atlantic Coast Sports Media Association. -- Darryl Slater