Women's Sports Foundation

Jessica Mendoza

Softball

Jessica Mendoza is an ESPN color analyst for the Women's College World Series and a sideline reporter during the NCAA College Football season. Additionally, she is an athletic ambassador for Team Darfur and a board member of the National Education Association Foundation. Currently a member of National Pro Fastpitch's USSSA Pride, which captured the 2010 NPF Championship title, she was voted Women's Sports Foundation Sportswoman of the Year in the team category in 2008 as well as USA Softball Female Athlete of the Year in 2006.

Career Highlights

2010 NPF champion with USSSA Pride
Two-time Olympic medalist
Three-time World Cup champion
Two-time Pan American Games gold medalist
Three-time World champion
2004 Yolanda L. Jackson Give Back Award winner
2008 Women’s Sports Foundation Sportswoman of the Year
Co-chair of the Women’s Sports Foundation Athlete Advisory Panel
Women’s Sports Foundation Past President

Collegiate Career

She is Stanford University's leader in hits (83), home runs (14), runs scored (70), slugging percentage (.737) and total bases (151). In 2002, Mendoza was an ISF world champion, one of the top 25 selections for the 2002 USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year, and was named a National Fastpitch Coaches Association/Louisville Slugger first-team All-American for the fourth time. In her final season, she was one of three Stanford seniors named to the 2002 Division I All-Pacific Region squad. She garnered first-team All-Pac-10 accolades for four years straight and led the Cardinal to its first Women's College World Series appearance in her junior year. During her sophomore season, Mendoza was named the Pac-10 Player of the Year, making her the first Stanford athlete to achieve this feat. As a freshman, she was named the Pac-10 Newcomer of the Year. That season she shattered the school's single-season records for home runs, batting average, hits and doubles. Mendoza graduated in the spring of 2002 with a degree in American studies and a master's degree in social sciences in education.

U.S National Team

Mendoza has been a huge part of the success of the U.S. national team over the past few years, helping guide them to both the World Cup and World Championship titles during the summer of 2010 as well as Olympic silver in Beijing in 2008. In July 2007, the U.S. team went undefeated, taking home its sixth consecutive Pan American gold medal. For the second consecutive year, the U.S. team captured the World Cup championship. The team was also victorious at the 2007 Canada Cup. Mendoza was named, as she led the United States to its first gold medal at the World Cup of Softball with three home runs, 16 RBI and a 1.167 slugging percentage. She also led the team to the International Softball Federation (ISF) World Championship title in Beijing with five home runs, 16 RBI and a slugging percentage of .969. That same year, she was inducted into the International Latin Sports Hall of Fame. In 2005, she captured the International Sports Invitational Championship as a member of the national team and became a member of the National Pro Fastpitch's Arizona Heat, making the all-star team. Mendoza made her first Olympic appearance as a member of the gold-medal-winning U.S. team in 2004. At the 2003 Pan American Games, she and her team also won a gold medal.