LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The NFCA revealed its 2025 NFCA Division I National Freshman of the Year Top 25 list on Friday afternoon. The winner will be announced on Tuesday, May 27, prior to the start of the 2025 NCAA Women’s College World Series in Oklahoma City.
This year’s finalists hail from 24 different universities and represent 10 NCAA Division I conferences from across the nation.
The Southeastern Conference led the way with eight honorees, while the Big Ten Conference followed with five representatives. The Atlantic Coast Conference, Big 12, Big South Conference and Sun Belt Conference earned two plaudits apiece. One student-athlete achieved top-25 status from the American Athletic Conference, Mountain West Conference, Patriot League and Western Athletic Conference.
LSU was the lone program with two honorees as Tori Edwards and Jayden Heavener brought the Tigers overall total to seven student-athletes. The last time two Tigers were represented in the same season was 2015 when Carly Hoover and Allie Walljasper were selected.
With the inclusion of Nelly McEnroe-Marinas, Oklahoma leads all program with 11 student-athletes named to the Top 25, quickly followed by UCLA at 10, Florida State at nine and Alabama and Arizona at eight. Florida, LSU and Tennessee follow at seven with Texas and Virginia Tech up next with six.
Six programs – Florida Atlantic University, Brigham Young University, University of Central Florida, University of Louisiana at Monroe, Georgia Southern University and Grand Canyon University – are represented for the first time. It marked the first time the Big South had multiple honorees, bringing its total to seven.
On May 8, the list will be trimmed to the top 10 and the three finalists will be released on May 22. The winner will be revealed on May 27.
The list of 25 was selected by the NFCA. The top 10, top three and winner are voted by the NFCA Division I All-America Committee. To be eligible, student-athletes must be nominated by their member head coach and in their first year of NCAA Division I collegiate competition as a true freshman or redshirt freshman. Nominated student-athletes remain in consideration for Top-10 selection.
The NFCA Division I National Freshman of the Year award was created in 2014 to honor outstanding athletic achievement among Division I freshmen softball student-athletes. In 2025, the NFCA will award Freshman of the Year plaudits to a student-athlete from NCAA DI, NCAA DII, NCAA DIII and NAIA. For more information about all NFCA Awards, visit nfca.org.
Auburn
BYU
ULM
Boise State
Grand Canyon
Washington
LSU
UCLA
FAU
Florida State
Lehigh
Ole Miss
Rutgers
LSU
Georgia Southern
USC Upstate
Virginia Tech
Oregon
Arkansas
Oklahoma
Michigan
Radford
Florida
Alabama
UCF
NFCA Division I National Freshman of the Year Winners
2024 – Jaysoni Beachum, Florida State; 2023 – NiJaree Canady, Stanford; 2022 – Jordy Bahl, Oklahoma; 2021 – Tiare Jennings, Oklahoma; 2019 – Danielle Williams, Northwestern; 2018 – Jocelyn Alo, Oklahoma; 2017 – Rachel Garcia, UCLA; 2016 – Amanda Lorenz, Florida; 2015 – Paige Parker, Oklahoma; 2014 – Annie Aldrete, Tennessee & Kasey Cooper, Auburn
NFCA Division I National Freshman of the Year
The NFCA (National Fastpitch Coaches Association) is the professional organization for fastpitch softball coaches. Known for its highly-regarded TUCCI/NFCA Freshman of the Year Awards, the NFCA also educates and supports softball coaches on a variety of different levels: from podcasts to a comprehensive drills database, to in-person events and National Convention.
Learn more about the NFCA and consider joining over 7,000 coaches today!
