JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (January 28, 2026) – The Atlantic Sun Conference revealed the 2026 preseason awards for softball on Wednesday, as the University of North Alabama were represented by seniors Alivia Wilken and Emily Simon, as well as junior Briley Dover.
The all-conference team includes 11 players — two pitchers, one catcher, four infielders, three outfielders and a utility player.
Wilken and Simon took both slots on the preseason all-conference team for pitching. In a tie vote between the ASUN head coaches, Simon and Wilken were both voted ASUN Preseason Pitcher of the Year. Dover, who enters her third season at UNA, was voted as one of the four infielders on the preseason team.
The ASUN also announced the Preseason Coaches Poll. UNA was picked to finish seventh ahead of Lipscomb, Jacksonville, Queens, West Georgia and Bellarmine. The top six includes defending champion North Florida, EKU, Central Arkansas, Austin Peay, FGCU and Stetson, respectively. UNF got all 12 first place votes.
Wilken enters her third season with the Lions as a fifth-year senior. She was a 2024 First Team All-ASUN selection and is a two-time ASUN Pitcher of the Week. Wilken finished last season with a 12-8 record and a 2.66 ERA while having an 18-8 record and 1.48 ERA as a junior.
Wilken was the first pitcher in school history to throw a perfect game, doing so in her 2024 debut against Samford. She also set the single-game Division I school record with 15 strikeouts. Over her two seasons, she has thrown 231 strikeouts and has a career ERA of 1.98.
Simon enters her second season with UNA, coming off a season where she posted a 9-4 record and a 2.18 ERA over 80.1 innings. She ranked fourth in the ASUN with her ERA and was tied for second in the league with four complete-game shutouts. She won two ASUN Pitcher of the Week awards last season.
A unique stat for Simon was that she did not allow any home runs over 353 batters faced. In her debut weekend at Alabama State, she pitched in three games with two wins and a save over 12.2 innings.
Dover enters her third season with the Lions following second team all-conference honors and all-freshman honors as a rookie in 2023. She was also listed among the top 10 shortstops in the country in the D1Softball Week 8 Power Rankings last season. Dover started all 54 games at third base as a true freshman and all 51 games at shortstop as a sophomore.
The former Loretto High School standout batted .337 last season with 59 hits, including 10 doubles, five triples and seven homers. Last season, she became the first player in school history to hit for the cycle, hit two triples in the same game and record five hits in the same game. Her five triples finished tied for the second-most in the ASUN.
The season opener is set for Friday, Feb. 6 at 9 a.m. against Middle Tennessee in Troy, Ala.
To view the preseason awards, click here.
For more information on North Alabama Athletics, visit www.roarlions.com and follow UNA Athletics on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
