Hofstedt earns Academic All-America honor

AUSTIN, Texas – Senior outfielder Lacey Hofstedt was recognized Friday for her outstanding collegiate softball season, garnering Capital One Academic All-America® third team honors as selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America.

Hofstedt is the first BYU student-athlete since 2012 and only the third Cougar softball player to earn Academic All-America honors, joining former players Stacey Toney and Jennifer Whiteley who received second team honors in 2012 and 2007, respectively. The last time BYU student-athletes took home the award was in 2012 when former track & field/cross country athletes Miles Batty and Nachelle Mackie were honored along with Toney's recognition in softball.

Out of Folsom, California, Hofstedt graduated with a degree in exercise science in 2014 before pursuing postbaccalaureate studies in her final year of NCAA eligibility, earning a 3.41 GPA. She plans to continue her education with her sights set on receiving her nursing degree while her husband attends medical school.

The outfielder was recognized earlier in the month for her excellent offensive production, earning All-West Coast Conference First Team honors, All-Academic WCC accolades and a Capital One Academic All-District 8 distinction.

Hofstedt’s leadership and poise not only helped her in the classroom but also as the lone senior in the starting lineup, helping BYU notch its ninth 40-win season and its third-highest winning percentage in school history at .741.

Starting all 54 games for the Cougars, she recorded the third-highest batting average for a single season in school history with .435 while tying her own BYU single season record for stolen bases with 25. She also increased her hold on the BYU career stolen bases record by finishing with 79 at the end of her career.

The senior took an unconventional path to achieve All-America status after a breakout season in her last year with the Cougars. As a fifth-year player, Hofstedt broke into the starting lineup playing in right and left field while hitting mostly in the nine-hole. Over the span of her career she was mostly used as an offensive weapon on the base paths as a pinch runner, causing havoc for opposing catchers and pitchers with her speed. 

Hofstedt overcame the challenges of being an unproven freshman in 2011 and medically redshirting the 2012 season due to injury. In 2013, she returned to break the single-season record for stolen bases and followed that with a much improved 2014 campaign which included an inside-the-park grand slam to help beat the highest-ranked opponent to ever come to Gail Miller Field in No. 2 Oregon.

In 2015, the senior slapper ranked second in batting on the team en route to the best season of her career while registering in the top five in five offensive categories in the West Coast Conference. In conference action, she led from the plate with a .512 clip and was No. 1 in stolen bases with eight, while also ranking second in on-base percentage (.553) and hits (22) with a No. 3 finish in runs scored (15).

Also selected to the third team are pitchers Michele Daubman of Fordham and Erin Gabriel of Tennessee; catcher Allie Daly of South Dakota; Georgia State’s Callie Alford, Oakland’s Sara Cupp, Mississippi State’s Julia Echols, Murray State’s Jessica Twaddle and Coppin State’s Candice Van Horn as infielders; designated player Mary Connolly of DePaul and Michigan’s Kelly Christner and Auburn’s Tiffany Howard as the other two outfielders.