LSU Gold

Aliyah Andrews named to Final 25 for USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year

by Kent Lowe | Sr. Assoc. Communications Director
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Aliyah Andrews named to Final 25 for USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year

BATON ROUGE – LSU senior softball outfielder Aliyah Andrews has been named one of the Top 25 Finalists for USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year announced on Friday.

The USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year award, which is considered the most prestigious honor in Division I women’s collegiate softball, recognizes the outstanding athletic achievement by Division I female players across the country.

Andrews leads the team in batting average (.366), hits (49), runs scored (35) and stolen bases (22-of-24) this season for the Tigers, 26-14 and 8-7 in the Southeastern Conference entering Friday night’s three game series at Kentucky. Andrews is a three-year letterman from Oldsmar, Florida.

Andrews is second in the SEC in stolen bases and 23rd in the NCAA, while he four triples is ranked 18th in the NCAA. She is tied for second in games played for her career at 251 and is the active Division I career leader in steals at 140.

Previous recipients of the USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year award are Stacey Nuveman (UCLA, 2002), Cat Osterman (Texas, 2003, 2005 and 2006), Jessica Van der Linden (Florida State, 2004), Monica Abbott (Tennessee, 2007), Angela Tincher (Virginia Tech, 2008), Danielle Lawrie (Washington, 2009 and 2010), Ashley Hansen (Stanford, 2011), Keilani Ricketts (Oklahoma, 2012 and 2013), Lacey Waldrop (Florida State, 2014), Lauren Haeger (Florida, 2015), Sierra Romero (Michigan, 2016), Kelly Barnhill (Florida, 2017) and Rachel Garcia (UCLA, 2018 and 2019). A 2020 USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year award was not given out due to the COVID-19 pandemic and season cancellation.

The Finalists include three graduate students, 10 seniors, nine juniors, one sophomore and two freshmen representing 20 NCAA Division I universities and seven athletic conferences. Among the universities, Alabama, Arkansas, Oklahoma, UCLA and Washington are represented by two student-athletes while Arizona, Clemson, Duke, Florida, Fresno State, Kentucky, LSU, Michigan, Northern Iowa, Notre Dame, Oklahoma State, Tennessee, Texas, Texas A&M, and Virginia Tech have one student-athlete on the list.

The list of 25 Finalists will be narrowed to 10 Finalists on May 5 before the Top 3 Finalists will be announced on May 19. The 2021 USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year will be revealed prior to the 2021 NCAA Women’s College World Series (WCWS), which is set to take place June 3-9 at the USA Softball Hall of Fame Complex.

In addition to bestowing the USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year award, USA Softball is now in its 19th season of presenting the ESPN.com/USA Softball Collegiate Top 25 Poll, which is announced every Tuesday during the regular season. Follow along with NCAA Softball all season long at USASoftball.com.

About USA Softball

USA Softball (USAS) is a 501(c)(3) not-for profit organization headquartered in Oklahoma City, Okla., and is designated as the National Governing Body (NGB) of Softball in the United States and a member of the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee. One of the nation’s largest sports organizations, USAS sanctions competition through a network of Local Associations, which includes all 50 states and select metro associations.  USAS is dedicated to providing people of all ages the opportunity to play the game they love at a variety of levels by offering recreational, league, tournament and competitive play for fast pitch, slow pitch and modified pitch.  USAS annually conducts thousands of tournaments throughout the country including over 100 National Championships.  The USAS umpire program is among the nation’s largest and are widely known as the best trained umpires in the game.

As the NGB for the sport of softball, USAS is responsible for training, equipping and promoting the six USA Softball National Teams that compete in events such as the Olympics, Pan American Games, World Championships and other international and domestic events. For more information on USAS, including its founding and history as the Amateur Softball Association of America (ASA), please visit, www.USASoftball.com.