D2
(Photo courtesy of GCU Athletics)

N.J. College Standouts Earn All-Region D2 Softball Honors

Nine standouts from three New Jersey colleges earned Division 2 Conference Commissioners Association (D2CCA) All-East Region honors, including four on the First Team that will be considered on the national All-America ballot to be announced in June.

Georgian Court placed two on the squad. Junior catcher Adriana Mungo (Temecula, Calif.) hit .345 with 16 doubles, six triples and 51 RBI for the Lions while helping guide the pitching staff to a 3.33 ERA as the team finished 39-21 and advanced to the NCAA East Region 2 finals. She was also a Second Team All-CACC selection.

Classmate Kaitlyn Stufft (Temecula, Calif.) is the pick at first base, where she bashed 11 home runs and drove in 64, hitting a robust .379 and slugging .641 to earn First Team All-CACC honors. Stufft was the 2022 CACC MVP and repeated on the D2CCA First Team.

Junior outfielder Jayda Jones (Corona, Calif.) was a Second Team selection after hitting .371 with 19 doubles, five home runs and 46 RBI for the Lions.

Courtney Grundhauser (credit: Jerry Milani)

Caldwell, which finished 35-19 and competed in the NCAA East Regional, had one First Team and two Second Team performers on the D2CCA list. Senior 2B Courtney Grundhauser (Easton, Pa.), a First Team All-CACC and All-Tournament and NFCA All-Region pick this year, was a D2CAA Second Team All-Region pick at third base last year. She finished 2023 with six home runs and 28 RBI this season with a slashline of .395/.418/.628. She also stole nine bases in 10 attempts and hit for the cycle in a win over St. Thomas Aquinas on April 14.

Senior 1B Maya Rodriguez (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.), a Second-Team All-CACC pick this year, is also three-time NFCA Scholar-Athlete. She ranked second on the Cougars in batting at .394 and posted 11 doubles and 29 RBI. She had 263 hits and 12 home runs in her Caldwell career with a .373 cumulative batting average.

Sophomore shortstop Ashleigh Tavaska (Jackson, N.J.) is a two-time Second Team All-CACC performer and earned NFCA All-Region second team honors. This year she batted .366 with team highs of 19 doubles and 39 RBI, a .392 on base pct. and .486 slugging.

Felician qualified for the CACC Tournament with a school-record 31 wins, placing one player on the First Team and two on the Second Team as well. Junior infielder-outfielder Alexis Velotta (Menifee, Calif.) was named First Team at DP, ripping 21 doubles and six home runs while batting .389 with 37 RBI.

Vienna Chierchia (Credit: Felician Univ.)

Junior OF Vienna Chierchia (Malalapan, N.J.) is a second-team selection, after hitting .415, fourth best in the CACC, with 21 doubles and 32 RBI.

Also earning Second Team honors is junior 3B Daisha Howard (Westbury, N.Y.), who hit .379 with team-bests of eight home runs and 44 RBI.

College Sports Communicators, formerly known as CoSIDA, was founded in 1957 and is a 3,200+ member national association for strategic, creative and digital communicators across intercollegiate athletics in the United States and Canada. The organization, which celebrated its 65th year during the 2021-22 academic year, is the second oldest management association in all of intercollegiate athletics.