BALTIMORE – Coppin State senior softball standout Candice Van Horn earned the ultimate accolade as she was selected to the Capital One Academic All-America® NCAA Division I softball third team Friday afternoon.
Van Horn also made history by becoming the first Coppin State female student-athlete in school history to ever earn Academic All-America® honors. She is the ninth Coppin State student-athlete and first since Dale Dunn in 2010 to be named an Academic All-America®.
Van Horn is also the only Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) student-athlete named to the Academic All-America® softball team.
Van Horn was one of 17 members of the 2015 Capital One Academic All-America® NCAA Division I softball team that had at least a 3.90 G.P.A. Overall, 34 student-athletes were named to the Academic All-America® team, including Alabama’s Hayley McCleney, who was selected as the Team Member of the Year for Division I softball.
Van Horn graduated earlier this month with a degree in sport management and signed a contract to play for the Karlsruhe (Germany) Cougars. Van Horn was voted to the 2015 Capital One Academic All-District® Softball Team, which allowed her to have a chance at earning All-America honors. This honor recognizes the nation's top student-athletes for their combined performances athletically and in the classroom. Capital One has been the entitlement rights holder to CoSIDA's Academic All-America teams programs since 2011.
A two-time first team All-MEAC section, Van Horn was honored at Coppin State's Eagle Awards ceremony as the softball team MVP and she received a prestigious Athletic Director's Excellence Award. Van Horn was also selected to the College Sports Madness softball first team.
Van Horn finished the season with a .400 batting average. It was the second consecutive year that Van Horn enjoyed a batting average of at least .400. She also won four games as a pitcher. Van Horn finished the regular season sixth in the MEAC in batting average and third in doubles with 11. She had 36 hits and a team best 19 runs batted in. Van Horn also hit four home runs including a grand slam against Winthrop.
For her career, Van Horn played in 136 games and tallied 120 hits, scored 98 runs, drove in 59 runs, had 26 doubles, slugged 14 homeruns and collected 29 multi-hit games.
Van Horn, who was nominated for the Lowes Senior CLASS Award, is a two-time member of the MEAC Commissioner's All-Academic Team. She was named to the 2014 MEAC All-Academic softball team. Van Horn has been a consistent member of the Coppin State Dean's List.
She was also a member of the Coppin State SAAC and Sports Management Association (SMA) Club. During her time at Coppin State, Van Horn has been an active participant in the community by assisting with several softball clinics in Baltimore. She also worked with a project called #lunchbag with the SMA club in which she assisted with providing lunches to the homeless in Baltimore.
Coppin State’s all-time Academic All-America® selections
John Choinski (1990 baseball), Terquin Mott (1996 basketball), Cecil Christwell (1998 baseball), Ian Roberts (1998 at-large), Beryl Harris (2002 track and field/cross-country), Nickie Peters (2002 & 2003 track and field/cross-country), Steve Delice (2008 track and field/cross-country) and Dale Dunn (2010 track and field/cross-country)
About Capital One
Capital One Financial Corporation (www.capitalone.com) is a financial holding company whose subsidiaries, which include Capital One, N.A., and Capital One Bank (USA), N. A., had $206.9 billion in deposits and $289.9 billion in total assets as of September 30, 2013. Headquartered in McLean, Virginia, Capital One offers a broad spectrum of financial products and services to consumers, small businesses and commercial clients through a variety of channels. Capital One, N.A. has more than 900 branch locations primarily in New York, New Jersey, Texas, Louisiana, Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia. A Fortune 500 company, Capital One trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "COF" and is included in the S&P 100 index.