Four Lady Flames Named to CSC Academic All-District Team®
5/16/2023 1:00:51 PM | Softball
Liberty juniors Caroline Hudson, Karlie Keeney and Mary Claire Wilson, along with sophomore Rachel Roupe, have all been named to the 2023 College Sports Communicators Academic All-District Softball Team®, as announced today by the College Sports Communicators (CSC, formerly CoSIDA).
To earn inclusion on the team, a student-athlete must be a starter or important reserve, have played in at least 50 percent of their team’s games and have at least a 3.50 cumulative grade point average. In addition, a student-athlete must have completed one full calendar year at his/her current institution.
As a result of their inclusion on the academic all-district team, they will now appear on the ballot for the 2023 College Sports Communicators Academic All-America Softball Team®. The first-, second- and third-team Academic All-America honorees will be announced on June 6.
Liberty has now received 15 CSC Academic All-District® honors in program history, with the last being in 2021 when Emily Kirby was voted to the team. Megan Robinson is the lone Academic All-America® recipient in program history to date, being named to the first team in 2015 and earning third-team honors in 2014.
Keeney (MBA) holds a 3.96 GPA, while Hudson has obtained a 3.92 GPA as a developmental psychology major. Roupe (biology major) has posted a 3.82 GPA to date, while Wilson (exercise science) carries a 3.81.
Hailing from Providence, Ky., Keeney repeated as ASUN Scholar-Athlete of the Year. Also a three-time all-conference selection, she leads the ASUN with 25 wins and 240 1/3 innings pitched, ranking in the top six nationally in both categories. That includes three wins over Top 25 opponents, besting three pitchers (Alabama's Montana Fouts, Central Arkansas' Kayla Beaver, Clemson's Valerie Cagle) who were Top 25 finalists for the USA Softball National Player of the Year. In ASUN play, she ranked second in the conference in both wins (12-3) and ERA (1.44). She has tossed five shutouts this season.
A native of Paris, Tenn., two-time ASUN Player of the Year Caroline Hudson leads the ASUN with 15 homers, 17 doubles (tied) and 50 RBI, batting .328 with a team-leading .667 slugging percentage. She had one of the biggest hits of the season, a go-ahead three-run home run to sink Montana Fouts and No. 13 Alabama, April 18. That was one of four homers this season against Top 25 opponents (also Duke and Central Arkansas). On March 5 against Radford, she became the first player in program history with four homers in one day. She carried a 16-game hitting streak into the second round of the ASUN Softball Championship.
Wilson, a native of Vestavia Hills, Ala., provides a spark both in center field and punch near the bottom of the lineup. She has batted .278 on the season with a .341 on base percentage, .451 slugging percentage, nine doubles, two triples five home runs and 28 RBI. In the first game of the season, she robbed Oklahoma's Alyssa Brito of a home run to end the first inning. She went 4-for-4 with two doubles, two RBI and three steals on March 9 against Sacred Heart, the first player in program history with four hits and three steals in the same game. She also had a two-homer game against Iona and a four-RBI contest versus Austin Peay.
Sharpsburg, Md., native Rachel Roupe was named to the ASUN All-Conference first team this season. She bats .316 with 13 homers, 47 RBI, a .620 slugging percentage and .417 OBP. She ranks second in the ASUN in both homers (13) and RBI (47), while ranking sixth in slugging percentage (.620). A three-time ASUN Player of the Week this year, Roupe finished the regular season on a 10-game hitting streak in which she recorded five homers and 19 RBI. Roupe has two grand slams on the season and also homered against nationally-ranked Virginia Tech. Also a standout on defense, Roupe had two catches featured on SC Top 10 this season.
Liberty (38-20) received an at-large berth to the NCAA Division I Softball Championship for the first time in program history. The Lady Flames are headed to the Los Angeles Regional as a No. 2 Regional seed. Liberty opens play on Friday at 11 p.m. ET at UCLA’s Easton Stadium, taking on San Diego State in a game aired nationally on ESPNU. The first game of the Regional will pit No. 2 national seed UCLA against Grand Canyon, Friday at 8 p.m. ET.
Featured in photo (L-R): Rachel Roupe, Karlie Keeney, Caroline Hudson, Mary Claire Wilson