BALTIMORE – Coppin State University softball standout Candice Van Horn named to the 2015 Capital One Academic All-District ® II Softball Team, selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). The team was announced Thursday afternoon.
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. District II comprises all of the NCAA Division I schools in Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Kentucky and Washington, D.C.
As a first team selection, Van Horn now becomes a candidate for the Academic All-America team, which is scheduled to be announced later this month or in early June.
“This is a great honor because I worked hard inside and outside of the classroom,” Van Horn said. “Keeping my grades up was always the most important thing for me. So I made sure to fulfill all of my study hall requirements and put in extra work. It’s great to see the hard work pay off. I’ve been blessed to achieve lots of personal goals. Earning this recognition is a nice way to end my collegiate career.”
A senior sports medicine major, Van Horn will graduate on Saturday, May 16. She was recently named to the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) softball first team for the second consecutive season. Van Horn was honored at Coppin State’s Eagle Awards ceremony earlier this week as the softball team MVP and she received a prestigious Athletic Director’s Excellence Award.
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, including two last weekend to help the Eagles win a series against crosstown rival Morgan State. 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, was named to the 2014 All-MEAC Academic team and the MEAC Commissioner's All-Academic Team. Van Horn has been a consistent member of the Coppin State Dean’s List.
She is 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.
“I'm so proud of Candice,” Coppin State head softball coach Ty Robinson said. “She gave us a lot, not just as a softball player but as a student here at Coppin State. She is a champion in life. This is what it all about, being great in the classroom and on the field.”
To be eligible for Academic All-America® consideration, a student-athlete must be a varsity starter or key reserve, maintain a cumulative G.P.A. of 3.30 on a scale of 4.00, have reached sophomore athletic and academic standings at his/her current institution and be nominated by his/her sports information director. Since the program's inception in 1952, CoSIDA has bestowed Academic All-America honors on more than 20,000 student-athletes in Divisions I, II, III and NAIA, covering all NCAA championship sports.
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.