Quintet of Eagles garner CSC Academic All-District Honors
GREENWOOD, Ind. – Five members of the Carson-Newman softball team, Macauley Bailey (Cross Plains, Tenn.), Abbi Martin (Gadsden, Ala.), Katey Mathena (Blacksburg, Va.), Regan Rowan (Soddy-Daisy, Tenn.) and Addie Saunders (Radford, Va.) were named to the 2025-26 Academic All-District Teams by the College Sports Communicators.
GREENWOOD, Ind. – Five members of the Carson-Newman softball team, Macauley Bailey (Cross Plains, Tenn.), Abbi Martin (Gadsden, Ala.), Katey Mathena (Blacksburg, Va.), Regan Rowan (Soddy-Daisy, Tenn.) and Addie Saunders (Radford, Va.) were named to the 2025-26 Academic All-District® Softball teams by the College Sports Communicators.
The 2025-26 Academic All-District® Softball teams, selected by College Sports Communicators, recognize the nation's top student-athletes for their combined performances on the court and in the classroom. To be eligible for this award, student-athletes must have at least a 3.50 cumulative grade point average, competed in 90 percent of the institution's games, or started in at least 66 percent of the contests.
This is the fourth straight season the softball program has had five selections to the All-District Team.
This marks the fourth straight year for Bailey and the second straight year for Martin to achieve All-District honors, while this is the first time for Mathena, Rowan and Saunders.
Additionally, Macauley Bailey, Abbi Martin and Addie Saunders will be in contention for an Academic All-American honor depending on the votes of CSC Members.
Macauley Bailey put together another stellar season in her final chapter, batting .440, totaling seven home runs with 59 RBIs, with a career-best .507 on-base percentage and a .636 slugging percentage. Her 81 hits were the sixth-most and 20 doubles is tied for the second-most in a single season.
The Cross Plains, Tennessee native closed her career with the third-most hits at 272, her .424 batting average and .480 on-base percentage are the sixth highest in program history, third with a .769 slugging percentage and fourth for the most doubles, 54. She is Carson-Newman's all-time leader in home runs, 55, and RBIs, 249, earlier this year she set the SAC record for career RBIs against Milligan.
Abbi Martin saved her best for last, shattering her career-best marks in her last season with the Eagles. The cherry on top was that Martin was named Third Team All-SAC in the outfield, her first SAC honor of her career.
The Gadsden, Alabama native started every game in center field, batting .360, with a career-high 67 hits and 40 RBIs with eight doubles and two triples. She got on base at a .413 clip working 18 walks, totaling a career-best 19 stolen bases and scored 57 runs, the most on the team. Martin added 24 multi-hit games, including five three-hit days to tie her most in a game and 13 multi-RBI outings.
Katey Mathena took a major step forward on the field, elevating her game and turning into the everyday right fielder after spending last season as a pinch runner. The sophomore started in 48 of the 52 games she appeared in.
The Blacksburg, Virginia native held a .356 batting average, producing 23 RBIs and hit her first career home run against Converse on February 24th. Mathena finished with 47 hits, including six doubles. She had the fourth-best on-base percentage on the team at .449, working 20 walks, tied for the third-most on C-N. The sophomore collected 11 multi-hit games and seven multi-RBI days. Additionally, Mathena had the game-winning catch in Carson-Newman's first NCAA Tournament win since 2019 against Anderson on May 15th.
Regan Rowan was one of the biggest surprises this year in the circle for coaches Michael Graves and Holly Tucker-Vance. The Soddy-Daisy native did not make her collegiate pitching debut until March 1st against Bluefield State.
Across 12 appearances with six starts she posted a 5-1 record, with a 2.29 ERA in 36.2 innings of work, collecting 23 strikeouts and held opponents to a .233 batting average. She made her first career start against Tusculum on March 24th, going the distance in 13-1 run-rule win, allowing just four hits and striking out four. Her longest start of the season came against Anderson in the NCAA Tournament, tossing six innings, allowing three runs, only one earned run on six hits in the Eagles' first tournament win in seven seasons.
Addie Saunders cemented herself as one of the premier bats not only in South Atlantic Conference but also the Southeast Region. The Radford, Virginia native was named First Team All-SAC and collected Second Team All-Region honors by NFCA and D2CCA.
The sophomore was second on the team with a .414 batting average, nearly a whole hundredth from her first year, and has shattered her freshman campaign numbers. She has collected 72 hits, including 13 extra-base hits, totaling 29 RBIs, and has flipped her strikeout-to-walk ratio, cutting her strikeouts in half and doubling her walks. Saunders has reached base safely in 26 of her last 28 games at the dish and has had a career-long 16-game on-base streak this season. Saunders posted 24 multi-hit games, more than tripling her total from last season.
College Sports Communicators will announce the Academic All-America® honorees on June 16. For more information about CSC Academic All-District® and Academic All-America® Teams program, visit AcademicAllAmerica.com.
