Kathleen Niemeyer (Softball)
Kathleen Niemeyer played softball at Menlo from 1998 to 1999. She is second on the all-time batting average leaderboard for the Oaks, hitting .435 in her time here. She is also third on the all-time single-season batting average leaderboard, having hit .458 in the 1999 season.Â
Niemeyer was named to the CalPac First Team for the 1999 season, when she was also named Co-Player-of-the-Year. That season, she hit .510 in the regular season, totaling three home runs, three triples, four doubles, and 24 RBIs. She was the first Menlo College Softball player to hit five triples in her career.
About her time at Menlo, Kathleen expressed, "I am just really happy I got to compete with athletes who were as excited about softball as I was. I felt like I was a part of something that only comes around once at that level. I am forever thankful for the opportunity to represent Menlo College!"
On Niemeyer's induction into the Hall of Fame, her head coach and Menlo's All-Time winningest Softball Coach, Kyle Brumbaugh stated, "She's probably the toughest, most disciplined player I ever coached."Â He shared a brief story about his time coaching Niemeyer:
"Kathleen asked me to stay after practice one day to take extra batting practice. She wanted me to set the machine so that the pitch would be way inside. She then started hitting every ball as a line drive to right center field. I had one of the other players run the machine so I could go behind the backstop to watch. Every pitch was on her hands and every ball was a line drive to right center. When I asked her why she was doing this, she said. 'If they are going to try and jam me or force me to pull the ball, I'm going to make them pay.' She did."
 "Kathleen Niemeyer was a fierce competitor and a tenacious worker," added Menlo College VP for Athletics Keith Spataro. "She is plastered all over the Menlo College Softball record books, and deserves to be immortalized in the Menlo College Hall of Fame."
