Texas Lutheran's DeAnna Hernandez Among Top 30 for NCAA Woman of the Year Award

Texas Lutheran's DeAnna Hernandez Among Top 30 for NCAA Woman of the Year Award
Posted: Sep 17, 2020

(Story Courtesy of Texas Lutheran Sports Information Department)

SEGUIN, Texas -- Texas Lutheran graduate and TLU Softball national champion DeAnna Hernandez has advanced to the Top 30 in the NCAA's Woman of the Year Award.

The NCAA Woman of the Year Selection Committee made the Top 30 announcement Thursday.
 
Hernandez is the first TLU student-athlete to advance to the Top 30.
 
The complete Top 30 list can be found here.
 
Hernandez entered the NCAA Woman of the Year Award program after being nominated by TLU and being named the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference's Co-Woman of the Year.
 
Selected from a record 605 school nominees — a group that was then narrowed to 161 nominees by conference offices — the Top 30 honorees include 10 from each of the three NCAA divisions.
 
All have demonstrated excellence in academics, athletics, community service and leadership. The honorees competed in 14 sports and studied a broad range of academic majors, including: nursing, mechanical engineering, biochemistry, criminal justice, kinesiology, accounting and advertising.
 
"The 30 honorees selected this year excelled in the classroom and in competition while also remaining committed to serving their peers and communities," said Suzette McQueen, chair of the Woman of the Year Selection Committee and senior associate commissioner for external relations and strategic marketing/senior woman administrator at the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association. "These outstanding women represent the thousands of diverse and talented women competing in college sports each year, and we're proud to recognize their achievements on and off the field."

The selection committee will announce the nine finalists, including three women from each NCAA division, in mid-October. From those finalists, the NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics will select the 2020 NCAA Woman of the Year. The Top 30 will be celebrated, and the Woman of the Year will be named this fall.
 
Hernandez is TLU's second SCAC Woman of the Year Award winner and NCAA Woman of the Year nominee since TLU joined the SCAC prior to the 2013-14 academic year. (Amanda Lochte, another TLU Softball standout, won the SCAC Woman of the Year Award in 2017.)

A senior outfielder from Sugar Land, Texas, Hernandez graduated from TLU in May with a 4.0 grade point average as a biochemistry major.

The 2019-20 TLU Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year, Hernandez was a four-year letter-winner for the 2019 NCAA Division III national champion Bulldogs. She also claimed TLU's Junior-Year Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year award in 2019.

In addition to her SCAC and TLU honors, Hernandez previously was named the 2019 Elite 90 Award Winner for NCAA Division III Softball at the national championship finals banquet. The Elite 90 award is presented to the student-athlete with the highest cumulative grade point average at each national championship. In 2020, Hernandez was named the SCAC's Elite 19 Award Winner for Softball.
 
Hernandez and the Bulldogs were 19-1 and ranked second in the DIII when the 2020 season was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
 
A 2019 SCAC First Team All-Conference selection, Hernandez was a career .340 hitter with a career on-base percentage of .412. She had 37 stolen bases in 42 career attempts.
 
In the Bulldogs' national championship season, Hernandez hit .367, stole 17 bases, and scored 30 runs. She posted an on-base percentage of .451.

"DeAnna Hernandez is a tremendous example of what TLU Athletics is all about," said Texas Lutheran Athletic Director Bill Miller. "She is an outstanding student and a great player. She is the epitome of a winner. TLU and the TLU Athletics Department are very proud of DeAnna and what she has accomplished. National championships are won with players like her on the team."

Hernandez, an outfielder on three SCAC Championship squads and three regional-tournament qualifying teams, was a key player throughout her career for TLU Head Softball Coach Wade Wilson.

"DeAnna has been a selfless teammate the past four years," said Wilson. "She had an incredible career both on the field and in the classroom."

Away from the softball diamond, Hernandez was a four-time member of the SCAC Spring Academic Honor Roll, and she made the TLU President's List in all eight of her collegiate semesters.

Hernandez was a TLU Chemistry Grant award recipient in 2019, and she was the secretary of the TLU Black & Gold President's Council for the 2019-20 academic year. She also served on the TLU Campus Activity Board, as a TLU Peer Mentor, as an organic chemistry research assistant, and as secretary and president of the TLU Pre-Health Professions Club.

"I will forever be thankful for the opportunities TLU has given me," said Hernandez. "To the coaches who have pushed me to be better, to the teammates who have become my family, and to the professors who allowed me to succeed, you will always be a part of me, and for that I thank you."