Newberry’s Stevens Earns SAC Softball Scholar-Athlete of the Year Award

ROCK HILL, S.C. – Newberry junior Casey Stevens, who carries a perfect 4.0 GPA, has been selected as the 2013 SAC Softball Scholar-Athlete of the Year in recognition of her excellence in academics, athletics, service and leadership.

The SAC Scholar-Athlete of the Year award honors one male and one female student-athlete in each of the conference's 14 championship sports. The awards are voted on by the conference's Faculty Athletic Representatives Committee.

Stevens competed in 17 games this season for Newberry, hitting .250 with three multi-hit games and five RBI at the utility position. She has played in a total of 94 games for the Wolves during her three seasons on campus.

The Coral Springs, Fla. native is majoring in mathematics with a minor in teaching. She was a member of the 2012 Capital One Academic All-District First Team and is a multiple-year selection to the SAC Commissioner's Honor Roll and the Newberry Dean's List. She also earned a Division II Athletic Directors Association Academic Achievement Award in 2011-12 and a NFCA All-America Scholar-Athlete Award in 2011.

Stevens frequently gives her time as a volunteer with youth organizations, serving as a bible study and vacation bible school leader, a YMCA tutor and a coach with Newberry rec softball and Camp Blue Ridge. She was a founding member of the Newberry Elementary Call Me Misses Program, and tutors adults in computers and mathematics with the Literacy Council.

Stevens has held leadership positions with Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Newberry Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, the Society of Undergraduate Mathematicians, the Blue Key Honor Society and Omicron Delta Kappa.

"Casey's drive to succeed is nothing shy of extraordinary," said Newberry assistant softball coach Alicia Abbott. "Her will to push against adversity goes to show the strength of her determination, whether it be on the field or in the classroom."