ESPN College Sports

CATHEDRAL CITY, Calif. -- Northwestern ace Eileen Canney isn't in danger of being eclipsed by her younger colleague to the same extent as fellow Illinois resident and U.S. senator Dick Durbin. However, freshman Lauren Delaney has wasted little time demonstrating that the Wildcats may have the most balanced pitching ticket of any of the top championship candidates.

Delaney picked up two of Northwestern's four wins in the Palm Springs Classic, including a shutout against No. 7 Oregon State. She is a perfect 6-0 in her first three weeks as a college pitcher, beating ranked foes Oregon State, Fresno State and Stanford. Not bad for a kid from Missouri who came in with about as much polish as an attic discovery on "Antiques Roadshow."

"When Lauren first showed up, she threw the ball really, really hard and she had a good changeup," pitching coach Tori Nyberg recalled. "I thought that she was going to work her tail off, and I wasn't really sure how good she was going to be come February. And she really worked her tail off and she got a lot better from September to February. I'm really pleased with the work she has done."

Work ethic is a theme that creeps up time and again in conversations about Delaney, as Nyberg, Canney and head coach Kate Drohan all mention in one form or another her lack of ego and willingness to work on weaknesses. The result is a pitcher who despite looking less than even her 18 years when she gingerly lopes to the mound with her hair braided in pigtails, shows the poise and composure of someone with far more birthdays in her past.

"I think that maybe the poise is more hard to come by," Nyberg said of the contrast between poise and raw physical skill in a freshman. "I mean, this is a totally different level, so you're facing tougher hitters, you have to get out of jams more often against better batters, and I think she's doing a good job with both right now. And she's getting better each weekend."

Consider one sequence from the game against Oregon State. With Northwestern having just claimed a 2-0 lead in the top of the fourth, Delaney walked Dani Chisholm to open the bottom of the inning. Leadoff walks are dangerous enough in any situation, but Delaney's mistake meant Mia Longfellow, Cambria Miranda and Brianne McGowan, the heart of Oregon State's order, would come to the plate with a runner on base.

Presented with an opportunity to showcase a freshman's nerves, Delaney instead put on a pitching display. She got ahead of Longfellow with two quick strikes and induced a soft liner to third base as Longfellow was forced to protect the plate on a borderline strike. She got the second out after jamming Miranda on the hands with good movement on a pitch. And after Chisholm stole second, Delaney calmly finished the inning by catching McGowan looking for a called third strike.

Despite a rough statistical showing in the finale against UCLA on Sunday, Canney remains the team's ace. She was the one in the circle on Saturday night, battling Arizona State's Katie Burkhart pitch-for-pitch in what might have been the weekend's best game, as the Wildcats knocked the Sun Devils from the ranks of the unbeaten.

But Canney's emergence as one of the nation's four or five best aces last season obscured the fact that Northwestern had two very good pitchers. Canney was the star workhorse in Oklahoma City at the Women's College World Series, but it was senior Courtnay Foster who came on in relief and shut down Alabama early in the event.

Canney's early numbers don't mean much in the long run, but her mentorship of Delaney means quite a bit, allowing the Wildcats to follow the same route to success as they did last season.

"Just like Courtnay Foster, last year's pitcher, and Eileen were really close and worked together, Lauren and Leeney have really begun to work together as a pitching staff," Nyberg said. "I think they feed off each other really well. … Leeney has been a great example for Lauren; I think she's learned really fast because of that."

And opponents are learning fast that it's a long day in the batter's box when you face Northwestern, even if you don't get its ace.

Cal Poly
There was no shortage of big-name programs and big-name players on display at the Palm Springs Classic, but one of the most impressive individual performances came from a player who spent most of her time playing on the outlying fields that were adjacent to the three main fields at the Big League Dreams complex.

Cal Poly's Lisa Modglin hit .600 in five games, with three home runs and seven RBI, as the Mustangs knocked off UNLV, Virginia, Mississippi and Illinois-Chicago. Only a two-run home run from Northwestern's Jessica Rigas in the sixth inning prevented Cal Poly from adding a major upset and finishing the weekend undefeated. So far this season, the Mustangs are hitting .319 with 15 home runs in 14 games.

Cal Poly already has wins this season against Washington (in San Luis Obispo) and Northwestern (in Las Vegas) and has a chance to add to a quietly impressive résumé when it faces Stanford next weekend at the Worth Invitational.

Texas
Of the six teams from last season's Women's College World Series on hand in Palm Springs (only Arizona and Alabama didn't show), it might reasonably have been assumed that Texas would face the longest weekend.

After all, as good as Megan Denny has looked at times this season, it's still a little early in the post-Osterman era (not to mention the post-Tina Boutelle era) for the Longhorns to battle such an elite field. The outlook didn't improve when shortstop Desiree Williams showed up in the desert without cleats and with a large brace on her left leg, battling an undisclosed injury that kept her out of all five games.

But as the weekend drew to a close, there were the Longhorns with a 4-1 record that included wins against Washington and Oregon State.

So with each passing week, it gets harder and harder to deny that Megan Willis, while not the nation's best hitter, might have more of an impact on games than any other position player in the country. In addition to the pickoff throws that seem to occur with regularity, Willis calls her own game behind the plate and guided Denny to shutout wins against both the Huskies and Beavers (Denny had previously blanked UCLA in the Kajikawa Classic).

When asked if she's starting to develop the same kind of chemistry with Denny that she had with Osterman, Willis said, "I think so. I think she trusts me a lot. I think she's watched me call a lot of games, and she understands that I know these batters out here. … I think as long as we're on the same game plan, things seem to work really well between us. It's just a matter of hitting our spots and using her strengths against the opponent."

An upset at the hands of Maryland, in a game Denny didn't enter until late, stopped Texas short of what would have been a rather remarkable perfect record, but the young Longhorns appear to be in very good hands with a senior catcher who is intent on getting back to take care of unfinished business in the postseason.

"You taste it and now you want all of it," Willis said. "I think that definitely having a younger team, it motivates us all a lot more to get back in that same situation."

UCLA
For the third weekend in a row, UCLA found itself on the losing end of a run-rule game. So why did the Bruins seem nonplussed about a 15-0 loss on Saturday night?

Because instead of saying uncle against the likes of New Mexico or Oklahoma State, the Bruins took it on the chin at the hands of a team that included Olympic locks like Lisa Fernandez, Jessica Mendoza and current UCLA coaches Natasha Whatley and Andrea Duran in an exhibition against a group of PFX professionals.

And while Bruins played the straight man in front of a big crowd in that game, coach Kelley Inouye-Perez's team spent most of the weekend gaining ground after an uncharacteristically uneven start to the season. A 6-1 loss against top-ranked Tennessee provided the only real disappointment of the team's stay in Palm Springs, but an 8-6 win against Northwestern on Sunday sent the Bruins back to Westwood with their first signature win.

After a disappointing 2-3 start at the Kajikawa Classic, Inouye-Perez talked about the importance of her players sticking together and believing in the sense of family that has long dominated UCLA softball. And one moment in Sunday's game against the Wildcats highlighted just how much her message is getting across.

With the Bruins up 2-1 in the second inning, catcher Jaisa Creps lined a hard shot that would have gotten through for a hit had it not been sent directly at shortstop Tammy Williams. An unlucky break that might have earned Creps a few tough-luck high fives or a pat on the back from most benches brought almost the entire UCLA roster out of the dugout to greet their catcher as if the liner had driven in a key run.

Was the reaction overkill for what was, after all, just an out? Maybe it was, and maybe that support had nothing to do with Creps later came up with a perfectly executed bunt as part of a run-scoring rally in the fourth and an RBI single of her own in the fifth inning. But having the team stick together can't hurt when it comes to fixing the more tangible flaws on display so far this season.

Speaking of which, the Bruins made just one error in their final two regulation games in Palm Springs, halting a defensive funk that had them last in the Pac-10 in fielding percentage entering play this weekend.

Tennessee
A short-term gamble by Tennessee co-head coaches Ralph and Karen Weekly that put the team's newfound No. 1 ranking in jeopardy overshadowed some performances that may have more to do with whether or not the Lady Vols ultimately hold that ranking in June.

Facing the toughest test of their nonconference schedule, the Lady Vols handed the ball to Megan Rhodes in Friday's game against UCLA, bypassing an ace who now seems like a mortal lock to swipe the career strikeout record away from Cat Osterman.

Rhodes rewarded her coaches by striking out eight and allowing just one earned run in four innings against the Bruins, and Monica Abbott chipped in seven strikeouts in three innings of relief as the Lady Vols walked away with a 6-1 win.

Getting Rhodes some innings in a big game could pay long-term dividends, but she's not likely to play as big a role this season as freshmen sluggers Tiffany Huff and Alexia Clay. Neither newcomer could solve Anjelica Selden in the UCLA game, but Huff drove in eight runs on the weekend and Clay chipped in two of her own in the team's finale against Oklahoma State.

Two of the six Lady Vols hitting better than .400 thus far, Huff and Clay have provided a boost of offense that caught even some of their teammates by surprise.

"We anticipated this season being mostly who we had coming back, and it's just a great surprise to have them hitting as well as they are as early in the season," senior shortstop Lindsay Schutzler said. "Usually the freshmen don't come on until later in the season, but they're in it two weekends into it, so it's really helpful."

Washington
Washington starter Danielle Lawrie is capable of playing the role of one-man band, sans bass drum and foot cymbals, but she's enjoying the music her teammates are producing at the plate this season.

The team's ace pitched her way to two wins in three starts over the weekend, cementing a win against Michigan State by hitting a three-run home run that turned a dicey 1-0 lead into a comfortable 4-0 win. But the better news for the Huskies is they didn't need hitting heroics from either Lawrie or similarly offensive-minded hurler Caitlin Noble for long stretches in Palm Springs.

Although the Huskies couldn't solve Texas' Megan Denny in an opening loss, they scored 31 runs in wins against Michigan State, Mississippi, Penn State and Nevada. That's not exactly on par with the pitching they'll face once Pac-10 season rolls around, but a .315 batting average is a sign of progress for a team that hit just .269 last season and finished ahead of only Oregon in runs scored among Pac-10 teams.

Dena Tyson, who had just six home runs and 23 RBI all of last season, has stepped up most noticeably so far, hitting .571 with five home runs and 14 RBI in 13 appearances.

"Definitely our offense is more refined," coach Heather Tarr said. "The pieces are there, it's just a matter of us sticking to our game plan and sticking with what we do. And having it not be about who we're playing but having it be about the Washington Huskies. And the fact that both Danielle and Caitlin, our pitchers, can contribute offensively as well as defensively, I think that's big piece to our puzzle."

Graham Hays is a regular contributor to ESPN.com's softball coverage. E-mail him at Graham.Hays@espn3.com.