Louisville, Ky. – Ten finalists have been selected for the 2016 Schutt Sports/NFCA Division II National Player of the Year award, announced the Association on Thursday afternoon. Senior captain Kat Zabielski, after being named a Top 25 finalist has moved on to being a Top-10 finalist.
Zabielski led the team in home runs this season and slugging percentage, starting all 49 games for the Blue and Gold. Named this year's East Coast Conference player of the Year, the Farmingdale, N.Y. native finished her career with 29 home runs with 73 RBIs coming this season alone. She finished the season with a .405 batting average, .497 on base percentage and a .919 slugging percentage.
The Great Lakes Valley Conference led the way with three selections (Foley, Perryman, Hodges), while the Peach Belt (Hartness, Poole) had two nods. The Gulf South Conference (Bannister), GLIAC (Butler), Mountain East Conference (Iacobacci), Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (Kovac) and the East Coast Conference (Zabielski) each garnered one finalist.
The list will be cut to the Top 3 on May 12 with the 2016 Schutt Sports NFCA Division II National Player of the Year revealed on Tuesday, May 17.
Behind the collaboration between the NFCA and the Division II Head Coaches Committee, and the generosity of Schutt Sports, the award was created in 2015 to honor the outstanding athletic achievement among softball student-athletes throughout Division II.
To view the list of the 10 finalists, click here.
Provided by the NYIT Sports Information Department.
