NCAA Release On Today's Top 10 Recipients
Former Emory All-American softball player Megan Light was selected for the NCAA Today's Top 10 Award the NCAA announced Thursday. The award recognizes former student-athletes for their successes on the fields and courts, in the classroom and in the community. Recipients completed their athletics eligibility during the 2013-14 academic year and will be recognized in January at the NCAA Honors Celebration in the Washington, D.C. area.
The NCAA Honors Committee selects the honorees and is comprised of representatives of member schools and conferences, as well as nationally distinguished former student-athletes.
Recently honored as one of the nine finalists for the 2014 NCAA Woman of the Year Award, Light was a three-time All-American and the first player in program history to earn two first-team berths. She established school season records with 19 home runs and 65 RBIs during the 2014 campaign. A four-time selection to the All-University Athletic Association First Team, she was tabbed as the conference’s Most Outstanding Player three times. Career-wise, Light hung up her Emory uniform ranked among the program’s all-time top 10 in 12 offensive categories including first in home runs (47), hits (230), doubles (60), RBIs (224), total bases (435) and slugging percentage (.812).
Light also shined in the academic realm as she was chosen
as the Capital One Division III Academic All-American of the Year
in softball, while also receiving the NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship
Award. She graduated with an overall grade-point average of 3.96,
majoring in Anthropology and Human Biology. She
was a 100 Senior Honorary, awarded by the Emory Alumni Association
for up to 100 students in the senior class for being excellent
models of citizenship and leadership. In 2013, she captured
Second Team Academic All-America recognition and earned berths on
the Academic All-District Team on three occasions.
Off the field, she served four years as the softball
team’s representative on Emory’s campus Student-Athlete
Advisory Committee, and volunteered at a homeless shelter and
Global Health Action, where she worked with donors on the
Left-Behind Children program in China. She also spent
time as an international volunteer at the Hohoe District Hospital
in Ghana during the summer of 2013 where she worked in various
wards assisting in patient exams and introducing health education
campaigns to staff, parents and children. Light was the
recipient of Emory's 2014 Brittain Award, regarded as Emory's
highest student honor, presented each year to a to a graduate who
has demonstrated exemplary service to both the university and the
greater community without expectation of recognition.
Light’s play served as a catalyst to an extremely successful four-year for the Eagles softball team that saw the program post a won-lost ledger of 156-23. During Light’s stint with the program, Emory captured four University Athletic Association championships, earned four berths to the NCAA Tournament and win a pair of NCAA Regional titles.
Light is joined by nine other athletes in 2014, including Lauren Battista (Bentley Univ./Women’s Basketball), Abby D’Agostino (Dartmouth/Women’s Cross country, Track and Field), Joe Fletcher (Loyola Univ., Maryland/Lacrosse), Kristen Hixson (Grand Valley State/Women’s Indoor and Outdoor track), Gabe Ikard (Oklahoma/Football), Kim Jacob (Alabama/Women’s Gymnastics), Nicole Michmerhuzien (Calvin College/Women’s Cross Country and Track and Field), Mark Thomas (Livingstone College/Basketball) and Shannon Vreeland (Georgia/Women’s swimming and diving).
Before 2013, the award recognized eight student-athletes and was known as Today’s Top VIII. The NCAA Honors Committee then expanded the award to include 10 honorees to recognize the increased number of student-athletes, sports and championship opportunities.