Ed Note: This continues the series in the New Carlisle News featuring returning athletes from Northwestern heading into the next school year.

Coming off of a magical season that saw the Northwestern softball team advance to the state final four, Warriors junior pitcher Jenna Robbins has solidified her future plans of playing the sport she loves at the next level.

All that remains for the ace pitcher, who finished the regular season unbeaten this year, is another trip to the final four, where she can finish off the job and come home with gold medal around her neck.

Robbins, who started playing softball at age four, credits her parents for leading her to the sport she ended up loving and focusing on at a young age.

“I started playing when I was 4 years old on a little travel team that my parents put together,” she said. “A few other girls from my high school team started on that team with me. The biggest influence in my life with softball is definitely my mom. She is a great role model with her role that she played at Northwestern and beyond high school.”

While leading the Warriors far into tournament play, Robbins finished the year as the most complete player in the CBC. She led the league in homeruns and RBIs, was top five in batting and finished no worse than third in all three major pitching categories wins, strikeouts and earned run average.

But for her, she is all about the team success and was quick to mention what her highlight was.

“Winning regional finals this past year was probably the highlight of my high school career so far,” she said. “Every year has been great, but this one was for sure the best.”

But Robbins is far from done. She will attend Eastern Illinois after graduating next summer from Northwestern, but for now, she will continue to focus on even getting better and putting the Warriors in a better chance to make a longer run in the tournament.

“I want to improve my game,” she said. “I play on a travel ball team and to different parts of the country to play the best teams around. I also do speed and agility workouts throughout the fall and winter. I receive hitting and pitching lessons throughout the year as well.”

“I always work on the same things just to improve my game all around. Hitting is my favorite part of the game and I try and improve it as well as pitching.”

“Our goals are always to make ourselves better in practice so we see our hard work paying off in a game,” Robbins added. “We always want to repeat what we did the previous year and get even better.”

Robbins added to her already impressive resume this past season by being named first-team all-state, after a second-team honor as a sophomore and three years first-team all-District and 2017 CBC Player of the Year. Robbins also is involved in Young Life and is a three-year Jan Van Gorden scholar.

Her future plans are to continue in the sport as far as she can, while majoring in Criminal Justice and enter the police academy.