McNeese’s Piancastelli Claims Consecutive Student-Athlete of the Year Honors
Southland Conference
FRISCO, Texas – McNeese junior utility player Erika Piancastelli was selected as the Southland Conference Softball Student-Athlete of the Year, the league announced Tuesday along with its All-Academic teams.
This is the second-straight season the Carlsbad, Calif., product has won the accolade. The health and human performance major holds a 3.45 cumulative grade point average. The 2017 season that saw McNeese win its second consecutive Southland regular season and tournament titles, produce a program record-tying 43 wins and make another appearance in the NCAA Regionals.
The three-time Southland Conference Player and Hitter of the Year was also selected to the CoSIDA Academic All-District Team. Piancastelli led McNeese in slugging percentage (.681), on base percentage (.544), home runs (13), runs scored (56), RBIs (49), total bases (109), walks (63) and sacrifice flies (4).
Three student-athletes are making their third appearance on the all-academic teams: Houston Baptist’s Cecilia Bauer, a Third Team CoSIDA Academic All-American selection, Abilene Christian’s Taylor Brown and Central Arkansas’ Briana Whisenhunt. Piancastelli and Cowgirls’ teammate Hailey Drew are making their second appearance on the teams along with the Wildcats’ Peyton Hedrick and Hannah Null.
Piancastelli, Brown, Hedrick and ACU’s Holly Neese were automatic selections to the All-Academic First Team after being named to the All-Conference First Team and meeting the All-Academic nomination requirements. Bauer, the Wildcats’ Brianna Barnhill and Sam Houston State’s Lindsey McLeod each posted 4.00 GPAs and were members of CoSIDA’s All-Academic District Teams.
Abilene Christian leads the all-academic teams with five selections while McNeese and Northwestern State each earned four spots. Central Arkansas had a trio named to the teams with Lamar, Nicholls and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi all with two selections. The Huskies and Bearkats had one player named to the teams each.
The All-Academic teams are voted on by head coaches, sports information directors and academic/compliance staff members from each Southland Conference institution. Student-athletes must possess a 3.0 cumulative GPA, have completed one full academic year at the nominating institution and participated in at least 50 percent of the team’s competition to qualify for All-Academic selection, excluding pitchers. Nominees who were also named to the All-Conference First Team or CoSIDA Academic All-District team are automatically named Southland All-Academic.
The Southland Conference awards committee, which consists of one administrator from each of the 13 member schools, votes for the student-athlete of the year. The Southland Student-Athlete of the Year award is presented to one student-athlete who achieves excellence in both academics and athletics. All nominees must have earned at least a 3.2 GPA on a 4.0 scale and demonstrated athletics achievement for at least two years at the nominating institution.
2017 Southland Conference Softball All-Academic Teams
| First Team |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Name |
University |
Class |
Hometown |
GPA |
Major |
| Erika Piancastelli^,1,2,# |
McNeese |
Jr. |
Carlsbad, Calif. |
3.45 |
Health and Human Performance |
| Cecilia Bauer3,#,% |
Houston Baptist |
Sr. |
Refugio, Texas |
4.00 |
Elementary Education |
| Brianna Barnhill# |
Abilene Christian |
Jr. |
Rhome, Texas |
4.00 |
Kinesiology |
| Taylor Brown1,3 |
Abilene Christian |
Sr. |
Richland Hills, Texas |
3.48 |
Kinesiology |
| Peyton Hedrick1,2 |
Abilene Christian |
Jr. |
Forney, Texas |
3.78 |
Kinesiology |
| Holly Neese1 |
Abilene Christian |
Jr. |
Plano, Texas |
3.68 |
Nutrition |
| Lindsey McLeod# |
Sam Houston State |
So. |
Austin, Texas |
4.00 |
Public Health |
| Amanda Gianelloni |
Nicholls |
So. |
Napoleonville, La. |
3.89 |
Marketing |
| Megan Landry |
Nicholls |
So. |
Pierre Part, La. |
4.00 |
Secondary Education |
| Liz Carter |
A&M-Corpus Christi |
Sr. |
Austin, Texas |
3.87 |
Psychology |
| Mackinzee Griebel |
A&M-Corpus Christi |
Sr. |
Lockhart, Texas |
3.96 |
Pre-Allied Health |
| Tori Yanitor |
McNeese |
Sr. |
Jamul, Calif. |
3.52 |
Psychology |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Second Team
Name |
University |
Class |
Hometown |
GPA |
Major |
| Kayla Gomness |
Central Arkansas |
Sr. |
Lemoore, Calif. |
3.41 |
Nursing |
| Hannah Null2 |
Abilene Christian |
Jr. |
Highland Village, Texas |
3.71 |
Convergence Journalism |
| Hailey Drew2 |
McNeese |
Jr. |
Fallbrook, Calif. |
3.37 |
Criminal Justice |
| Jordan Rains |
Northwestern State |
Sr. |
Houston, Texas |
3.81 |
Psychology |
| Briana Whisenhunt3 |
Central Arkansas |
Sr. |
Crandall, Texas |
3.52 |
Health Education |
| Hailee Rhodes |
Northwestern State |
Jr. |
Spring, Texas |
3.93 |
Business/CIS |
| Taylor Schmidt |
McNeese |
Gr. |
Yorba Linda, Calif. |
3.58 |
Criminal Justice |
| Kate Myers |
Central Arkansas |
Jr. |
Jenks, Okla. |
4.00 |
Biology |
| Kelly Meeuwsen |
Lamar |
So. |
Hillsboro, Ore. |
3.25 |
Biology |
| Sidney Salmans |
Northwestern State |
Jr. |
The Woodlands, Texas |
3.55 |
Elementary Education |
| Kellye Kincannon |
Northwestern State |
Sr. |
Lake Jackson, Texas |
3.26 |
Biology |
| Ashley McDowell |
Lamar |
Sr. |
Plano, Texas |
3.34 |
Family and Consumer Sciences |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
^2017 Southland Softball Student-Athlete of the Year
1All-Conference First Team selection
2Two-time all-academic selection
3Three-time all-academic selection
#CoSIDA Academic All-District
%CoSIDA Academic All-America