TLU places 14 student-athletes onto Easton/NFCA All-America Scholar-Athlete list

 

SEGUIN, Texas -- The Texas Lutheran Bulldogs, the 2019 national champions in NCAA Division III Softball, placed 14 student-athletes from that national title squad onto the 2018-19 Easton/NFCA All-America Scholar-Athlete list.

 

Bulldogs receiving Easton/NFCA All-America Scholar-Athlete recognition were: Kelly Jurden, Jordaine Bishop, McKay Bloxham, Alyssa Cantu, Madisyn Cates, DeAnna Hernandez, Casey Martin, Kylie Murdock, Cassidy Myers, Lauren Myers, Skylar Ouellette, Haley Padilla, Chassety Raines, and Cassie Roche.

 

Bishop, Cantu, Cates, Hernandez, Jurden, Murdock, Lauren Myers, and Ouellette were repeat award winners from the 2017-18 list.

 

Bishop, Cantu, Cates, Hernandez and Lauren Myers received the honor for a third consecutive year.

 

Jurden added her second Easton/NFCA All-America Scholar-Athlete award to her 2019 Google Cloud Academic All-America honor, and Hernandez collected her third Easton/NFCA All-America Scholar-Athlete award after being named the NCAA Division III Softball Elite 90 award winner at the national championship tournament in Tyler, Texas. The Elite 90 Award is given to the top student-athlete at each of the 90 NCAA championship events.

 

Over 8,000 student-athletes (8,161), the most in NFCA history, were named 2019 Easton/NFCA All-America Scholar-Athletes, the NFCA announced.

 

NCAA Division III led the way with 1,928 student-athletes earning a 3.5 grade-point average or higher for 2018-19.

 

NCAA Division I and Division II followed with 1,769 and 1,306 honorees. High School weighted and High School unweighted earned 1,225 and 793 distinctions. NAIA and two-year programs each amassed 570 recipients.

 

The Bulldogs won the NCAA Division III National Championship in Tyler on May 27. The Bulldogs defeated Emory (Ga.) twice that day in the best-of-three championship series to complete a stretch in which the Bulldogs won 19 of 20 games.
 
The national championship was TLU's first team championship as a member of the NCAA Division III, and it was TLU's first since a women's volleyball national championship in the AIAW-II in 1976.

 

TLU has won five team national championships and seven other individual or relay team national championships.

In their run to the national championship, the Bulldogs went undefeated in the NCAA National Championship Finals in Tyler and in the NCAA Marshall (Texas) Regional and went 2-1 against Linfield College at the McMinnville (Ore.) Super Regional.

Adding their three victories en route to their sixth-straight Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Championship, the Bulldogs were 13-1 overall in the postseason in 2019.

TLU went 18-5 against teams that were ranked or received votes in the NFCA Top 25 in 2019. TLU recorded wins over Birmingham-Southern College (twice), Eastern Connecticut State University, East Texas Baptist University (twice), Emory University (twice), Linfield (twice), Southwestern University (five times), Transylvania University (twice), Trine University, and Williams College.

 

The Bulldogs ended the 2019 season at No. 1 in the NFCA national poll, and the Bulldog coaching staff was named the NFCA's National Coaching Staff of the Year for NCAA Division III.