Silk honored as NCAA Woman of the Year nominee
INDIANAPOLIS — The NCAA announced the candidates for the 2017-18 NCAA Woman of the Year program this week and Sage College softball player Alexa Silk, of 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 2017-18 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.
The many honors Silk garnered as a senior include being named to the 2018 CoSIDA Google Cloud Academic All-District Softball Team. The selection is the third straight for the outstanding student-athlete that was named the 2017-18 Sage Female Co-Athlete of the Year as well as the 2017-18 Dean Sharon Robinson Senior Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year.
Also selected as the 2018 Gator of the Year for Softball, Silk was penned to the 2018 Empire 8 Honorable Mention Team for her play on the field. She was 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, Silk was 66-71 on stolen base tries. She added a .416 career batting average, which ranks fifth all-time at Sage. Silk 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. 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. 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.
Silk’s 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.
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.
The second baseman was a three-time Skyline All-Conference selection and earned her second straight selection to the CoSIDA Academic All-District honoree. 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 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.
