BATON ROUGE — Two-time LSU All-American pitcher Britni Sneed was named the 2002 NCAA Woman of the Year for the state of Louisiana, as announced by the NCAA.
The NCAA Woman of the Year Award honors senior student-athletes who have distinguished themselves throughout their collegiate careers in the areas of academic achievement, athletics excellence, service and leadership.
This marks the fifth time in the last six years that an LSU athlete has earned this honor. Tiger golfers Katherine Harris and Lisette Lee earned the award in 2001 and 2000 respectively. Tiger gymnast Amy McClosky was the 1998 Louisiana Woman of the Year and Becky Ann Gibbs was the 1997 award winner.
The 2002 SEC Pitcher of the Year and tournament MVP, Sneed completed her final season with a 34-7 record. Joining assistant coach Ashlee Ducote-Eddy as LSU’s only repeat first-team All-America selections, she struck out 478 on the year, breaking both the school and SEC single-season records.
Averaging 11.9 strikeouts per seven innings, Sneed ranked second in the country in strikeout ratio with the fourth best single-season strikeout ratio in NCAA history. She completed her career with 1,370 strikeouts, putting her fourth in the NCAA career strikeout list.
The senior from Houston also threw a school-record six complete-game no-hitters along with 23 shutouts, tying her for 15th in NCAA single-season history. She led the SEC and ranked in the top 10 in the nation with an ERA of 0.75, the sixth lowest in SEC history.
She and Tiger teammate Trena Peel participated on the USA Softball Elite Team during the summer, as the team finished second to the USA National Team in the Canada Cup.
Fifty state winners were selected by a special committee made up of representatives from NCAA member schools. Ten finalists will be named later this month and the NCAA Committee on Women’s Athletics will name the 2002 NCAA Woman of the Year at the 12th annual awards dinner to be held Nov. 2 in Indianapolis, Ind.