Full Atlantic 10 Release
ST. LOUIS - The University of Dayton softball team garnered a number of honors from the Atlantic 10 on Wednesday. Senior Brandy Brown was picked to the Atlantic 10 All-Conference Second Team. Freshmen Kayla English and Natalie Mariano were tabbed to the All-Rookie Team. Also, Brown and junior Kathleen Maloof were selected to the A-10’s All-Academic Team.
Brown, a senior from Fortville, Ind., led UD in batting average, hits, doubles and RBI in 2012. She is currently ranked as 35th toughest batter to strikeout in NCAA. Brown ranks in UD’s Top 10 all-time in games played, at-bats, hits, home runs, RBI, sacrifices and slugging percentage.
She ranks fifth in the A-10 in batting average (.338) and had a .417 slugging percentage this season. On Sunday, Brown was named UD’s Offensive Player of the Year and MVP. She was also picked to College Sports Madness’ 2012 Atlantic 10 All-Conference First Team. Brown was also selected to the A-10’s All-Academic Team.
English and Mariano continued Dayton’s tradition of placing student-athletes on all-rookie teams. Since the A-10 All-Rookie Team’s inception in 2006, a Flyer has been named to the team each season. This season marks the first time that UD has had two named to the team.
English, a Grapevine, Texas native, ranks ninth all-time at UD in strikeouts as a freshman after fanning 134 this season. She ranked third in the A-10 in strikeouts behind UMass’ Sarah Plourde and Fordham Jen Mineau. English had a 10 strikeout performance against St. Bonaventure and Saint Louis. She tied UD’s single-season saves record after recording her third of the season on May 5. English was the team’s Rookie of the Year and was also selected to College Sports Madness’ 2012 Atlantic 10 All-Conference First Team.
Mariano, a native of Strongsville, Ohio, finished the season on an eight-game hitting streak. She had two of UD’s four outfield assists on the year and five multi-hit games. Mariano had a .426 slugging percentage for the season.
Maloof, a junior from Indianapolis, Ind., was picked to the A-10’s Academic All-Conference team for the second consecutive season. This season is the first time that two UD student-athletes have been named to the Academic All-Conference team since 2009.
Maloof was a 2011 CoSIDA / Capital One Academic All-District Second Team selection and was second team all-conference in 2011. She holds UD’s single-season doubles record after recording 19 in her rookie campaign. She ranks second all-time at UD in doubles (36) and home runs (21). In addition, she also ranks in the Top 10 all-time at UD in batting average (5th), runs (4th), hits (8th), RBI (T-4th) and sacrifices (5th).
The Flyers finished seventh in the Atlantic 10 with a 22-29 record. This year’s Flyer squad equaled its 2011 win total, tying for the most under Head Coach Cara LaPlaca. The Flyers graduate five seniors: Megan Barrett, Brandy Brown, Courtney Kutsulis, Lauren Nacke and Sarah Wedel.
