BOWLING GREEN, Ky. — Following her final season of competition for WKU Softball, outfielder Paige Carter has earned recognition for her work in the classroom as the graduate student was named to the 2021 Academic All-District II Team, the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) announced Thursday.
Carter is joined by Charlotte's Cori Henderson as the only Conference USA softball student-athletes to be honored. She is the lone player from C-USA to earn CoSIDA Academic All-District and NFCA All-Region honors.
A native of Crown Point, Indiana, Carter marks the 14th CoSIDA Academic All-District selection in WKU Softball history and is the 11th different Hilltopper to earn the distinction.
District II consists of all FBS and FCS Division I programs in Kentucky, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Washington D.C. and West Virginia. Nominees must be a starter or significant contributor to the team while carrying at least a 3.3 grade point average.
In her fifth season as a Hilltopper, Carter also landed on the C-USA Softball All-Academic Team, NFCA All-America Scholar Athlete list, C-USA Academic Medal list, C-USA Commissioner's Honor Roll and spent a semester on both the WKU President's and Dean's Lists. Carter earned a 3.83 GPA in route to her undergraduate Sport Management degree and went on to post a 3.90 GPA while earning a graduate degree in Recreation and Sport Administration on The Hill.
On the field, Carter earned Second Team All-Region honors from the NFCA, All-Tournament Team recognition from Conference USA, Second Team All-Conference USA and was named the C-USA Hitter of the Week (5/3).
Carter started all 47 games for the Hilltoppers across the 2021 campaign. She led the team in numerous stat categories including batting average (.365), runs scored (48), hits (57), doubles (19), total bases (115), slugging percentage (.737%), walks (31), on-base percentage (.468%) and sacrifice flies (2). Carter's 19 doubles set a new single-season program record for the Red and White.
In total, Carter appeared in 220 games across her five-year career on The Hill and left her mark all over the record book. Carter finishes ranked third in career slugging percentage (.534) and walks drawn (80) in addition to ranking fourth in career home runs (29), runs scored (128) and RBI (123). She finished with a batting average of .312, 183 hits, 37 doubles, 18 sacrifice hits and a fielding percentage of .926 after spending time in the infield and outfield.
With All-District honors Carter is eligible for the All-America ballot, which will be announced later this summer. WKU's two CoSIDA Academic All-Americans came in 2002 (Kristalyn Smith) and most recently in 2010 (Shannon Smith).
How to Follow the Hilltoppers: For complete information on WKU Softball, follow the team on Twitter at @WKUSoftball, Instagram @WKU_Softball and Facebook /WKUSoftball
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