May 5, 2012

Five Ivy Softball Players Earn Capital One Academic All-District Honors

Complete Capital One Academic All-District Softball Teams

Portions courtesy of Brown Sports Information, Harvard Athletic Communications and Yale Sports Publicity.

PRINCETON, N.J. -- Five Ivy League softball players were named 2012 Capital One Academic All-District honorees, including Harvard seniors Jane Alexander and Rachel Brown, Brown junior Stephanie Thompson and senior Kate Strobel, as well as Yale senior Virginia Waldrop. The Ivy League contingent of honorees comprises five of the 11 spots on the District I squad.

The 2012 Capital One Academic All-District Softball Teams, selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA), recognize the nation’s top student-athletes for their combined performances athletically and in the classroom.

First-team Academic All-District honorees advance to the Capital One Academic All-America® Team ballot, where first-, second- and third-team All-America honorees will be selected later this month. For baseball and softball, only First Team All-District teams were selected, so each Ivy League honoree continues on to the national ballot.

Alexander is having a breakout season for the Crimson, and currently leads the team in batting average (.408), hits (58), triples (4) and runs scored (32). The senior has started every game at shortstop and is the Ivy League leader in hits, triples and total bases this season. The Palo Alto, Calif., native boasts a 3.49 cumulative grade-point average as a psychology concentrator.

Brown, the defending Ivy Pitcher of the Year, has been dominant once again this season. She ranks third nationally in hits allowed per seven innings (3.78) and sixth in strikeouts per seven innings, averaging 9.7 this season. She is the Ivy League leader in opposing batting average (.153) and strikeouts (226), and is second in the league in wins (18), earned run average (1.42) and innings pitched (163.0). The San Diego, Calif., native is a psychology concentrator and holds a 3.51 GPA.

Fourth in the nation in batting average, Thompson ended the year with a .477 average and led the team in hits (51), runs (27), homeruns (9), RBI (27) and total bases (90). As Brown's starting shortstop, she had a 92 percent fielding percentage and a 57 percent on base percentage, which ranks sixth in the nation. In just three years, Thompson ranks second in homeruns (24) in a career, second in career batting average (.438), fourth in runs scored (91), third in hits (156), second in doubles (37), and fourth in RBI (82). The Chino, Calif. native carres a 3.37 GPA with a major in Neuroscience.

Strobel, Brown's starting first baseman for four years, ranks second on the team in batting average with a .408 mark. In 2012, she led the squad with 27 RBI and nine homeruns, while coming in second in hits (42), doubles (9) and walks (17). She boasted a 98 percent fielding percentage and has a .496 on base percentage. In her career, she is first all-time in homeruns in a career (33), second in hits (159), fifth in at bats (441), fourth in runs (93), and fourth in doubles (31). The Denver, Colo. Native has a 3.32 GPA while majoring in Literature/Culture in English.

Waldrop, a senior from Houston, Texas, appeared in 120 games in her Bulldog career. This season, she matched her career-high with 11 runs scored. Her top performance came in a victory over Central Connecticut when she had two hits, scored two runs and knocked in a pair. A humanities major with a 3.86 GPA, she also excels off the field. She co-initiated and organized Bulldog PAWS (Pediatrics Alliance with Student-Athletes), a program that pairs Yale varsity athletic teams with pediatric neurosurgery patients at Yale-New Haven Hospital. It marks the second academic honor for Waldrop, who was named to the all-district second team last year.