Senior Ashleigh King of the University of Missouri–St. Louis softball team has been named the Great Lakes Valley Conference Softball Scholar-Athlete of the Year. She is one of 12 student-athletes to be named as a 2013-14 GLVC Winter and Spring Scholar-Athlete of the Year. Recipients were honored for their efforts in both the classroom and on their respective playing surface in the sports of men’s and women’s basketball, men’s and women’s golf, men’s and women’s swimming and diving, men’s and women’s tennis, men’s and women’s track and field, baseball and softball.
King, the lone senior on the GLVC Champions’ squad, concluded her career as a Triton with a perfect 4.0 cumulative GPA as an education major with an emphasis in elementary education. She is the first-ever UMSL softball player to be named GLVC Scholar-Athlete of the Year, an honor that comes nearly a month after she became the 10th UMSL student-athlete to garner CoSIDA Academic All-America® honors as she was named to the sport’s third team. The St. Louis native started all 57 games in centerfield, posting a batting average of .290 with 54 hits, including 10 doubles, 22 RBIs and 37 runs scored. A two-time second-team All-GLVC honoree, King helped the No. 6 nationally-ranked Tritons to a program-best 49-8 record and a spot in the NCAA Midwest Super Regional.
King is just the sixth student-athlete in UMSL program history to be named a GLVC Scholar-Athlete of the Year, and the first since Andi Dimke (men’s tennis) was selected in 2008-09.
The league selects one student-athlete in each conference sport to be designated the GLVC Scholar-Athlete of the Year. The award is based upon athletic accomplishments, both team and individual, and academic performance in the season upon which the award is based. Each conference member has the opportunity to nominate one individual from its team for the award. Nominees must have a cumulative grade point average which meets Academic All-America standards (3.30), and freshmen and first-year transfers are not eligible for the award. The voting is completed by each member institution’s Faculty Athletic Representative (FAR).
