SCHENECTADY, N.Y. – Recent graduate Karson Saunders '23 of the Union College softball team added yet another accomplishment to her incredible Union career this week, as she was recognized as a Top 30 honoree for the 2023 NCAA Woman of the Year Award, the NCAA announced on Monday.
 
Saunders is the second Union College student-athlete and the 11th from the Liberty League to be named a Top 30 honoree since 2006, when Union Athletics Hall of Famer Erika Eisenhut '06 earned the recognition. Union is one of only three Liberty League schools to boast a Top 30 selection in the history of the program and is the only Capital District school (at any Division) to have a Top 30 honoree.
 
Established in 1991, the award is rooted in Title IX and recognizes female student-athletes who have completed their undergraduate studies and distinguished themselves in their community, in athletics and in academics throughout their college careers. From an original pool of 619 institutional nominees, Saunders was one of 164 conference-level nominees for the Woman of the Year award, including 63 that competed at the Division III level. She is one of just 10 Division III student-athletes to reach the Top 30 stage of the nomination process.
 
Saunders adds this honor to a multitude of accomplishments and recognitions achieved during her final season at Union. She was named the Liberty League Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year and the Division III Commissioner's Association Region III Student-Athlete of the Year over the summer, the culmination of an incredible senior season that saw the Rexford, N.Y., native earn Academic All-America® Team Member of the Year honors from College Sports Communicators and first-team All-America laurels from the National Fastpitch Coaches Association.
 
On campus, the sociology and English double major was named Union's Senior Scholar-Athlete of the Year and the winner of the Stephen Ritterbush '68 Award, recognizing a student-athlete who best exemplifies the quality of "sound mind and sound body." She was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa, graduated with a 4.00 GPA and was named a Co-Valedictorian of the Senior Class. At Prize Day, Saunders earned the David Brind (1982) Memorial Prize in English, given to an outstanding senior student in English, and the Daniel F. Pullman Classical Prize, given to a senior of high scholastic standing in humanities.
 
She was inducted into several honor societies during her time at Union, including Sigma Tau Delta (English), Iota Iota Iota (Gender, Sexuality and Women's Studies), Alpha Kappa Delta (Sociology), Omicron Delta Kappa (Leadership), and Order of Omega (Greek). In addition, she served as Vice Chair of the school's Honor Council, worked as a tutor in the Writing Center and a peer mentor with the Accommodative Services Office, and was a contributing writer to the Sociology Department newsletter.
 
On the field, the Liberty League Player of the Year ranked top-five in Division III in both batting average (.528, fourth) and on-base percentage (.600, third) during the 2023 season, and her batting average was the highest in a single season in the 28-year history of the Liberty League. Saunders set new Union single-season records for batting average, on-base percentage and stolen bases (22), while also ranking third in runs scored (41) and walks (19), sixth in slugging percentage (.764) and seventh in hits (56). She recorded a hit in 31 of her 35 games and reached base in 33 of 35 contests as a senior.
 
In three years at Union, Saunders graduated third in career batting average (.452); second in slugging percentage (.726), on-base percentage (.516) and stolen bases (42); and seventh in home runs (14) in program history.
 
Saunders, who pursued a senior thesis project at Union on the challenges, social supports and stigmatization of college-age women with type-one diabetes, is currently attending the University at Albany's School of Public Health, where she is pursuing a Master's of Public Health with a concentration in Health Management and Policy. She hopes to take an active role in the development of policies, initiatives and educational materials to improve the overall health of groups with special healthcare needs.
 
The Woman of the Year selection committee will select three honorees from each NCAA division for a total of nine finalists, the names of which will be announced in November. The NCAA Woman of the Year will be announced and all Top 30 honorees will be announced during an awards presentation in January at the annual NCAA Convention in Phoenix.