Indianapolis, IN – The NCAA announced the candidates for the 2017-2018 NCAA Woman of the Year program. Sage's softball player Alexa Silk (Freehold, NY/Greenville) was selected as the Gators' honoree. The NCAA Woman of the Year program honors the four key pillars in their honorees: academics, athletics, service and leadership.
The NCAA's Woman of the Year program garnered 581 nominations for the academic year as the 2017-2018 calendar year marks the 28th year of the program. Of the 581 nominees, there were 251 from Division I, 131 from Division II and 199 from Division III. This year's honorees represent 20 different NCAA sports, while there were many who were multi-sport student-athletes as there were 109 which competed in two sports, 58 from three sports, two from four sports and even one nominee that participated in five sports as her institution.
Four pillars of the Woman of the Year award: academics, athletics, service and leadership.
Among the many honors Silk garnered as a senior, she was named the 2018 CoSIDA Google Cloud Academic All-District Softball Team. The selection if the third straight for the outstanding student-athlete, that was named the 2017-2018 Sage Female Co-Athlete of the Year as well as the 2017-2018 Dean Sharon Robinson Senior Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year.
Also selected the 2018 Gator of the Year for Softball, Silk was also penned to the 2018 Empire 8 Honorable Mention Team for her play on the year. She was also named to the Sportswoman of the Year Team as well for her efforts and play to lead the Gators. On the season, Sage posted a 10-15 overall record, while finishing 4-10 in their first campaign as a member of the Empire 8.
For her time at Sage, she was 66-71 on stolen base tries. Silk added a .416 career batting average, which ranks fifth all-time at Sage. She played in 132 games (No. 6), with 129 starts and added 447 at bats (4th). She was third with 186 career hits, fifth in doubles (36), fourth in triples (9), second in home runs (17), while adding 82 RBIs (8th).
An outstanding student at Sage, Silk owns a 3.845 grade point average as a nursing student and graduated in May from Sage. Silk ranks nationally in several categories in the latest NCAA Division III statistics release. She is 34th in stolen bases with 0.68 per game, while standing 79th in triples with four, while her 0.18 triples per game average ranks 15th nationally. She is also among the Top 250 players ranked in batting average. She was also honored as the Empire 8 Player of the Week once after a torrid week at the plate when she batted .567 and led the Gators with a 4-4 start on their spring training trip.
Her career resume is extensive as she made her mark on the softball program in her time at Robison Field. As a Gator rookie in 2015, she was a National Fastpitch Coaches Association All-Northeast Region Second Team performer at second base, while also earning Skyline Conference All-Star First Team honors. She belted a team-leading seven home runs and finished with a team-best .414 average with 12 doubles, a triple drove in 24 runs. She had a blistering .730 slugging percentage with a .449 on-base percentage. Her 2015 home run performance ranks No. 2 all-time in single-season home runs at Sage. She was 9-10 on stolen bases and had a .927 fielding percentage helping to turn three double plays as well in her first collegiate campaign.
She finished her first season ranked in a number of Sage single-season categories as she was No. 9 in hits (46), No. 6 in doubles (12), No. 8 in runs scored (31), No. 17 in RBI's (24), No. 16 in batting average (.414), and No. 19 in at-bats (111).
A member of the 2016 Sage team which finished as the Skyline Tournament runner-up, she batted .381 with 64 total bases and a .542 slugging percentage.
As a junior, she was named to the 2017 National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA), All-Region Third Team. Silk's 2017 Third-Team selection marks her second appearance on the all-region squad. The second baseman was a three-time Skyline All-Conference selection and earned her second straight selection to the CoSIDA Academic All-District honoree. Silk has had one of the strongest seasons in program history. In 2017, the second baseman ended the season with 62 hits, 46 runs, 36 stolen bases, 28 RBI's, 14 doubles, seven home runs and three triples with a .449 batting average and a .746 slugging percentage. Silk, who was named to the Skyline weekly honor roll twice this season, finished first in the Skyline in slugging percentage, batting average, home runs, hits and stolen bases. Her 36 stolen bases ranked 16th in the country with her 62 hits coming in at 19th at the end of conference championships.
Silk had a record setting season shattering the single-season record of 20 stolen bases by Kristen Beikirch (2014) and Carla Pasquarelli (2004). The infielder also tied Beikirch's 2013 single-season 46 runs record.
On her senior season, Silk batted a team-leading .413 with 33 hits, two doubles, four triples and 14 RBIs'. She had a .538 slugging percentage to go with her .434 on-base percentage. She also had 15 stolen bases including a pair on the final day of the 2018 season to pen her name to Sage's career stolen base record. Against Nazareth, she broke Kristen Beikirch's stolen base mark of 65 with a pair of stolen bases in the second game.