CORVALLIS, Ore. – Southern Oregon University’s Lauren Quirke was named to the 2020 Academic All-America® NAIA softball team, as selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA).
The NAIA Academic All-America® program is financially supported by the NAIA national governance structure to assist CoSIDA with handling the awards fulfillment aspects for the 2019-20 NAIA Academic All-America® teams.
Despite the cancellation of spring competition during COVID-19, CoSIDA continued its sponsorship of the Academic All-America® awards program. Student-athletes were selected based on career statistics.
A total of 26 softball players – 13 on the first team, 13 on the second – were chosen nationally for the honor, which is designed to recognize the top student-athletes in the NAIA for a combination of their academic and athletic accomplishments.
A product of San Mateo, Calif., Quirke maintains a 3.5 cumulative GPA as a communications major. She came to SOU via San Mateo C.C. in the fall of 2018 and, as a junior, was voted the NAIA World Series MVP. Her senior campaign was cut short this spring, but she'll be eligible to return for the 2021 season.
When the season was canceled in mid-March with the top-ranked Raiders sitting at 23-3, Quirke was sporting a .488 batting average, the nation's third-highest hit total (40), and 13 extra-base hits that translated to a .768 slugging percentage – the best among all Cascade Conference players with at least 60 at-bats.
The complete 2020 Academic All-America® NAIA softball team can be found
here.