Softball Lands Three on CoSIDA Academic All-District Team

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The 2016-17 College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Academic All-District Softball Teams were announced on Thursday afternoon and Fordham was well represented on the District 1 First Team as seniors Sydney Canessa and Lauren Quense and sophomore Jessica Hughes earned the distinction. The honorees are recognized for their performances both athletically and in the classroom.
 
First Team Academic All-District honorees now advance to the CoSIDA Academic All-America Team ballot, where first-, second-, and third-team All-America honorees will be selected later this month.
 
Canessa boasts a 3.50 GPA, is majoring in Finance, and is once again excelling on the field for the Rams, already setting two school records this season and on pace to potentially set several more before the season is over. A couple weeks ago, the Wall, N.J. native became the first Ram to notch six hits in a single game, going 6-for-6 at St. Bonaventure during the team's record-setting 23-8 win over the Bonnies, and a few days later, she also became the program's all-time leader in runs scored, now with 185 in her career. Canessa has never missed a game, starting all 227 over her four years in the Bronx, and is equally adept in the field as she is at the plate, where she has committed just six errors in all those games, including zero this season and during her sophomore year.  Canessa was named to last year's A-10 All-Academic team, as well.
 
Quense is a Business Administration major and currently holds a 3.56 GPA. Fordham's senior ace leads the Atlantic 10 with 19 wins, a new career-high, to go with a 2.07 ERA, third in the league, and 108 strikeouts across a league-leading 175.2 innings. At the plate, Quense has also drawn 34 walks, second-most in the conference behind Hughes' 46, and has hit a personal-best five home runs this season, including a go-ahead two-out three-run bomb to take a 4-3 lead against Dayton on Saturday. The senior is among the top-10 in several all-time pitching categories at Fordham.
 
Hughes holds a 3.40 GPA as a Communications major and is once again enjoying a tremendous season in the maroon and white. The sophomore, last year's Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Year, has just recently set the school's all-time record for walks in a season, now up to 46, which ranks seventh in all of Division I. Hughes leads the Rams with a .393 batting average as well as her .535 on-base percentage, her 53 runs scored, 59 hits, and is second with a .707 slugging percentage, as well. She is tied with Madi Shaw with 24 extra-base hits on the year, including five triples and a personal-best nine home runs after hitting three last year. After setting the single-season record for stolen bases a year ago, the sophomore has swiped 23 more this year and is up to 58 for her career, fourth-most all-time.
 
Fordham has previously had four Academic All-Americans, with Erin Brooks being named second team in 2004 and third team in 2003, Mary Beth Puccio garnering first team recognition at designated player in 2008, Jen Mineau earning back-to-back third team honors in 2011 and 2012, and Michele Daubman earning third team honors, as well, in 2015.