Howard Earns Consecutive CoSIDA Academic First Team All-America Honor
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.— The 2022 softball season may be over for The University of New Mexico, and with it the career of outfielder Andrea Howard, but the Albuquerque native has added one last accolade to her storied legacy.
Howard was selected as a CoSIDA Academic First Team All-American as announced by the organization on Tuesday, becoming the first two-time, first-team All-American in UNM Softball history.
Eleven student-athletes were selected to the first team, with three designated for outfielders. Between the three teams, there were a total of 14 student-athletes that were repeat selections on the Academic All-America® Division I softball team, with Kaylee Tow (University of Alabama) named a CoSIDA Academic All-America® choice for the fourth time, while Howard joined Georgina Corrick (University of South Florida) as a three-time Academic All-America® selection.
Fourteen of the 37 members of the Academic All-America® Division I softball teams carried a perfect 4.0 GPA in their undergraduate work or graduate school. The 11 members of the first team have an average GPA of 3.88.
Howard recently graduated with a double major in biology and psychology with a minor in chemistry, maintaining a 4.12 GPA.
As a result, Howard becomes the sixth Lobo to earn multiple first-team All-America distinctions and the seventh to be named a three-time academic All-American. She is the first UNM first team All-American since 2019. Howard previously earned second team academic All-America honors in 2019 and first team academic All-America honors in 2021.
On the field, Howard capped her career by producing unparalleled numbers for her best season as a Lobo. Starting all 53 games in center, Howard tallied 57 hits, that included eight doubles and three triples, a conference-best 18 home runs, 43 walks (21 intentional), .403 batting average,.875 slugging percentage and .531 on-base percentage, and had 57 RBI, which ranked second in the Mountain West.
Her 18 home runs and 126 total bases both ranked third all-time in program history for a single season and her 57 RBI and 43 walks ranked second in program history for a single season. In addition, her .875 slugging percentage was the second-best in program history for a single season and her on-base percentage of .531 was the best in program record.
This season, Howard also broke the program record for career home runs, finishing with 47, as well as career total bases with 380.
Academically, Howard also closes her career as a four-time member of the MW All-Academic Team and four-time MW Scholar-Athlete.