YOUNG HARRIS, Ga. – For the first time in program history, Carson-Newman softball has landed a pair of players on CoSIDA's Academic All-America team.
It's just the second time in the history of the athletic department that a pair of teammates has been honored. Caleb Agee and Luke Greer were both recognized last year for the track and field team.
Outfielder Abby Fiessinger (Benton, Ky.) earned first team honors, while catcher KaraLynne Levi (Murfreesboro, Tenn.) landed on the third team.
The awards (along with baseball's Tyler Thompson released Wednesday) bring Carson-Newman's overall total to 46 academic All-Americans all-time, 31 in the last six years.
The duo becomes the softball program's eighth and ninth academic All-Americans.
Fiessinger joins Elayna Siebert as the program and the athletic department's two-time first team Academic All-American.
Fiessinger was named the program's sixth honoree for the league's Softball Scholar Athlete of the Year honor earlier in May and the first since Elayna Siebert won in 2016. Prior to that, Haley Allen won it in 2004 with Carson-Newman and SAC Hall of Fame Marci Mitchell (now Whiteside) winning three straight from 2001-03.
The Benton, Ky.-native wrapped up her mathematics degree with a 3.85 GPA. She is a four-time Eagle Scholar and will be a four-time member of the SAC Commissioner's honor roll. Last year she earned CoSIDA Academic All-America honors.
On the field, Fiessinger goes down as one of Carson-Newman's all-time greats. She is just the second two-time All-American for the program since it transitioned to Division II. She earned All-America honors as a freshman at second base from the D2CCA before being recognized as an outfielder as a junior unanimously by the NFCA and D2CCA. She was also named the Southeast Region Player of the Year for her efforts last season.
She closed out her career as an Eagle ranked in the top-five in several Carson-Newman statistical categories including, being second in total bases with 381, second in intentional walks with four, fourth in home runs with 29, fourth in sacrifice flies with five, fifth in on-base percentage at .473, fifth in hits with 225, and fifth in hit by pitch having been hit 28 times.
Levi blossomed in her first senior season (the Murfreesboro, Tenn.-native plans to use her extra year of eligibility granted due to the CoVID-19 health crisis) at the plate. Levi was hitting .463 in 2020 before the season came to an early close. She had eight doubles and two bombs with 25 RBI.
In her Carson-Newman career, she ranks first in SAC flys with 10 and second in times hit by a pitch with 54. She also has the second best fielding percentage (.996), second most chances (1089) and second most putouts (990).
