If there were any doubts that Arizona pitcher Alicia Hollowell’s career accomplishments are as impressive as those from any woman who has ever taken the mound in NCAA Division I competition, her performance in this year’s Women’s College World Series erased them.

The four-time all-American ended her career ranked third on the all-time Division I list in wins (144) and strikeouts (1,768). Her 17 no-hitters also rank first in the tradition-rich Arizona program.

All that was missing for Hollowell was a national championship. In her final opportunity to win a title with her teammates, Hollowell fulfilled her dream of pitching the Wildcats to the highest level in softball by tossing two shutouts against Northwestern in the best-of-three final of the WCWS June 5 and 6.

Hollowell clinched the title by firing a strike for the last out in a 5-0 victory. She and her teammates, who also blanked Northwestern, 8-0, in Game 1 of the final series, were able to deliver the program its seventh national championship.

"I’ve had dreams of celebrating for four years, since I came to Arizona," Hollowell said. "Every World Series we came into, I had dreams of winning the last game. It never came true until tonight."

Hollowell struck out 13 in the last game to pass UCLA’s Debbie Doom for the most strikeouts in a Women’s College World Series. In six games, she recorded 64 strikeouts, two more than Doom had in 1982.

Arizona coach Mike Candrea, who guided the Wildcats to NCAA championships in 1991, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1997 and 2001, knew how important it was to his ace pitcher to add the ultimate team prize to all of her individual accomplishments.

"Did she need it to be great in Arizona history? Probably not," Candrea said. "But for her sake, I think her career would have been a little bit empty without it."

While Hollowell was putting up zero after zero on Northwestern’s line on the scoreboard, Arizona constantly applied pressure offensively.

In Game 2 of the championship series, Arizona scored a run in the first inning to put Northwestern in an early hole. It was the 30th time this season that Arizona scored in its first at-bat.

Northwestern’s best chance to change the momentum came in the third inning while it still trailed only 1-0.

Northwestern, 50-15, loaded the bases to start the inning on three consecutive singles. Hollowell responded by registering three consecutive outs. First, Hollowell froze first baseman Garland Cooper with a called third strike, and she induced a foul pop out from cleanup hitter Jamie Dotson. With two outs, Kristen Amegin worked the count full before flying out to Autumn Champion in left field to end the threat.

Arizona, 54-11, added a pair of runs in the fifth and sixth for some insurance.

The scrappy Northwestern club, which defeated top-seeded UCLA to become the second consecutive Big Ten Conference team to reach the championship series, didn’t go quietly in its final at-bat.

After seeing the first two hitters make outs, Northwestern strung together three straight singles before Hollowell was finally able to close out the game with her final strikeout.

"We had to refocus a little more on seeing the ball better and not trying to overdo it or anything," said Northwestern lead-off hitter Katie Logan. "I guess we were more relaxed. We just realized that it had the potential to be the last game, and we wanted to fight back harder than we did (in the first game)."

Since 1991, every senior class at Arizona, except last year’s team, left the program with at least one national title.

"There’s a standard at Arizona," Hollowell said. "There should never be a class that goes without winning a national title."

Candrea, who coached the U.S. Olympic Team to the gold medal in 2004, knows it is becoming harder to be the last team standing in the Women’s College World Series.

In 2005, Michigan became the first team east of the Mississippi River to win the NCAA title.

"My hat goes off to Northwestern," Candrea said. "They’re a very good team and had a tremendous season. That kind of tells you why it’s getting tougher. There are more teams in the country that can compete and come in here and win."

Arizona State 000 000 0 — 0 1 0

Texas 000 110 x — 2 6 0

Katie Burkhart and Heidi Knabe; Cat Osterman and Megan Willis. W — Osterman. L — Burkhart. HR — Desiree Williams (Texas).

Alabama. 000 212 000 0 — 5 10 3

Northwestern 001 300 100 1 — 6 13 1

Stephanie VanBrakle, Chrissy Owens (5) and Ashley Holcombe; Eileen Canney, Courtney Foster (6) and Jamie Dotson. W — Foster. L — Owens. HR — Garland Cooper (Northwestern); Erin Dyer (Northwestern).

Tennessee 000 003 1 — 4 9 2

UCLA. 101 000 1 — 3 9 2

Monica Abbott and Shannon Doepking; Anjelica Selden and Emily Zaplatosch. W – Abbott. L – Selden.

Oregon St. 000 011 000 — 2 5 0

Arizona 002 000 001 — 3 10 3

Brianne McGowan and Lisa Allen; Alicia Hollowell and Callista Balko. W — Hollowell. L — McGowan. HR — McGowan (Oregon St.).

Texas 000 000 0 — 0 4 1

Arizona 000 002 X — 2 1 0

Cat Osterman and Megan Willis; Alicia Hollowell and Callista Balko. W — Hollowell. L — Osterman.

Northwestern 000 001 1 — 2 5 0

Tennessee 000 000 0 — 0 1 0

Eileen Canney and Jamie Dotson; Monica Abbott and Shannon Doepking. W — Canney. L — Abbott. HR — Darcy Sengewald (Northwestern).

Arizona St 002 010 0 — 3 4 0

Oregon St. 000 010 0 — 1 2 1

Katie Burkhart and Heidi Knabe; Brianne McGowan and Lisa Allen. W — Burkhart. L — McGowan.

UCLA. 102 001 0 — 4 7 0

Alabama 010 000 0 — 1 6 2

Anjelica Selden and Emily Zaplatosch; Stephanie VanBrakle, Chrissy Owens (3) and Ashley Holcombe. W — Selden. L — VanBrakle. HR — Andrea Duran (UCLA); Dominique Accetturo (Alabama).

Tennessee 000 010 002 — 3 8 0

Arizona St. 000 010 000 — 1 4 2

Monica Abbott and Shannon Doepking; Katie Burkhart and Heidi Knabe. W — Abbott. L — Burkhart. HR — Jennifer Griffin (Tennessee); Heidi Knabe (Arizona St.).

UCLA 001 100 0 — 2 5 0

Texas 000 000 0 — 0 3 0

Anjelica Selden and Emily Zaplatosch; Cat Osterman and Megan Willis. W — Selden. L — Osterman. HR — Andrea Duran (UCLA); Emily Zaplatosch (UCLA).

Arizona 000 000 0 — 0 2 1

Tennessee 000 010 x — 1 3 3

Alicia Hollowell and Callista Balko; Monica Abbott and Shannon Doepking. W — Abbott. L — Hollowell. HR — Katherine Card (Tennessee).

Northwestern 010 000 02 — 3 9 1

UCLA 000 000 10 — 1 6 1

Eileen Canney and Jamie Dotson; Anjelica Selden and Emily Zaplatosch. W — Canney. L — Selden. HR — Tammy Williams (Northwestern); Garland Cooper (Northwestern); Jamie Dotson (Northwestern).

Arizona 221 001 0 — 6 9 1

Tennessee 000 000 0 — 0 2 3

Alicia Hollowell and Callista Balko; Monica Abbott and Shannon Doepking. W — Hollowell. L — Abbott.

Caitlin Lowe cf 4 2 1 0 1 0 0 0

Autumn Champion lf 4 1 1 1 0 0 0 0

Kristie Fox ss 3 1 0 2 0 1 0 1

Callista Balko c 4 1 1 1 0 0 12 0

Jenae Leles 3b 3 0 0 0 1 1 1 1

Chelsie Mesa 2b 4 1 1 1 0 0 2 1

Taryne Mowatt dh 4 1 3 3 0 0 0 0

Kelly Nelson pr 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Laine Roth 1b 3 0 0 0 1 2 5 0

Jill Malina pr 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Adrienne Acton rf 3 1 1 0 0 1 1 1

Sam Banister ph 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Alicia Hollowell p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3

Totals 33 8 8 8 3 5 21 7

Katie Logan, lf 3 0 0 0 0 2 0 0

Tammy Williams, ss 3 0 0 0 0 1 1 1

Garland Cooper, 1b 3 0 0 0 0 2 7 0

Jamie Dotson, c 3 0 1 0 0 1 6 0

Ann Schraufnagel, pr 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Kristen Amegin, dh 3 0 0 0 0 1 0 0

Shela McCorkle, cf 2 0 0 0 0 2 3 0

Erin Dyer, rf 2 0 0 0 0 1 0 0

Ashley Crane, 2b 2 0 0 0 0 1 3 0

Darcy Sengewald, 3b 2 0 0 0 0 1 1 2

Eileen Canney, p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Courtnay Foster, p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2

Totals 23 0 1 0 0 12 21 5

Arizona 005 100 2 — 8 8 2

Northwestern 000 000 0 — 0 1 4

E – Leles; Hollowell; Williams; Cooper; Crane; Sengewald. LOB – Arizona 8; Northwestern 2. 2B – Mowatt. HR – Mesa; Mowatt. SF – Fox. SB – Lowe.

Alicia Hollowell 7.0 1 0 0 0 12 23 23

Eileen Canney 2.0 3 2 2 1 1 9 10

Courtnay Foster 5.0 5 6 2 2 4 24 27

Win — Hollowell (31-5). Loss — Canney (26-8). WP – Foster. Umpires — Sally Walker, Lisa Harvey, and John Kurnat. A — 4,391

Canney faced 2 batters in the 3rd.

Katie Logan lf 4 0 3 0 0 1 0 0

Tammy Williams ss 4 0 2 0 0 2 3 3

Garland Cooper 1b 3 0 1 0 1 2 10 0

Jamie Dotson c 4 0 0 0 0 2 4 0

Kristen Amegin dh 3 0 1 0 0 0 0 0

Ann Schraufnagel pr 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Sheila McCorkle cf 3 0 0 0 0 2 0 0

Erin Dyer rf 3 0 1 0 0 2 0 0

Ashley Crane 2b 3 0 0 0 0 2 1 3

Darcy Sengewald 3b 3 0 1 0 0 0 0 1

Eileen Canney p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Totals 30 0 9 0 1 13 18 7

Caitlin Lowe cf 4 2 2 0 0 0 0 0

Autumn Champion lf 4 1 3 2 0 1 2 0

Kristie Fox ss 3 0 0 0 0 1 1 0

Callista Balko c 3 0 2 2 0 0 13 0

Kelly Nelson pr 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Jenae Leles 3b 3 0 0 0 0 0 1 1

Chelsie Mesa 2b 3 0 0 0 0 0 2 1

Taryne Mowatt dh 3 0 2 0 0 1 0 0

Danielle Rodriguez pr. 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0

Laine Roth 1b 3 1 2 0 0 0 2 0

Adrienne Acton rf 3 0 1 0 0 1 0 0

Alicia Hollowell p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Totals 29 5 12 4 0 4 21 2

Northwestern 000 000 0 — 0 9 2

Arizona 100 022 x — 5 12 0

E — Cooper; Crane. DP — Wildcats 1. LOB — Northwestern 10; Arizona 7. 2B — Logan; Balko. SH — Fox.

Eileen Canney 6.0 12 5 5 0 4 29 30

Alicia Hollowell 7.0 9 0 0 1 13 30 31

Win — Hollowell. Loss — Canney. WP — Canney. Umpires — Lisa Harvey, John Kurnat, Sally Walker. A — 4,423.