DeStaso Earns Academic All-District Honors
5/7/2015 12:00:00 AM | Softball
SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. -- Senior Danielle DeStaso (Congers, N.Y.) of the Seton Hall University softball team was named First-Team Capital One Academic All-District II, it was announced Thursday by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA).
It is the second first team honor in as many days for DeStaso who carries a 3.57 cumulative grade point average as an education major and will graduate in May She is the second Seton Hall softball student-athlete to be named First-Team Academic All-District since in the last three years; joining Brittany Hammer who was named a second team Academic All-American in 2013.
In order for a student-athlete to be eligible for Academic All-District honors, he or she must be at least a sophomore in academic standing and carry a minimum of a 3.3 cumulative GPA. The teams are selected based on a combination of academic and athletic merits.
As a First-Team All-District honoree DeStaso is now eligible for Academic All-America consideration. The NCAA Division I Capital One Academic All-America softball teams will be announced later this month.
A first team All-BIG EAST selection for her work on the field in each of the last two seasons, DeStaso has made her mark as one of the most well-rounded players in program history. The senior will enter this weekend's BIG EAST Championship ranked second in school history with 34 home runs and 121 runs-batted in. Her 31 career doubles rank seventh all-time while from the pitcher's circle, she has racked up the third-most strikeouts (485) and sixth-most wins (38) among all Pirate hurlers.
DeStaso is the 11th Pirate all-time to earn Academic All-District accolades and the ninth to capture a spot on the first team. A three-time BIG EAST Academic All-Star, she joins Megan Meyer and D'arcy Djakalovic as the only members of the program to be selected as both first team All-BIG EAST and first team Academic All-District performers in their career.
She was also one of two BIG EAST players to receive such recognition this season, joining DePaul pitcher Mary Connolly.
Third-seeded Seton Hall will open the 2015 BIG EAST Championship presented by New York Life tomorrow, May 8, against #2 DePaul. First pitch is scheduled for 2:00 p.m. ET from Rosemont, Ill. with a live national broadcast slated to be available on FOX Sports 2.
