LOUISVILLE, Ky. — NFCA Division III All-Americans Jessica Goldyn and Hanna Hull collected two more honors for themselves and three-time national champion Virginia Wesleyan on Thursday, when the Association announced the Marlin duo as the 2021 Schutt Sports/NFCA National Player and Pitcher of the Year, respectively.
Graduate student Goldyn, who previously was named both the 2021 Diamond Sports/NFCA Catcher of the Year and the New Balance/NFCA Golden Shoe recipient, earned her first All-America nod this season, after a year in which she broke the single-season NCAA Division III record for steals with 73 in 75 attempts and helped lead the Marlins to their third national championship in four NCAA tournaments. The Virginia Beach, Va., native batted a team-leading .488 with 69 runs scored, 84 hits, 23 doubles, 11 triples, eight homers and 54 RBI in 53 games. She also walked 30 times and had only four strikeouts for the season.
Exactly half of her hits (42) went for extra bases, which exceeded the 40 extra-base hits by Marlin opponents COMBINED in the same 53 games and 1,036 more at-bats.
Goldyn finished the year ranked first in Division III in doubles and triples, and third in RBI. Her stolen base total surpassed former Virginia Wesleyan All-American Courtney Bogan’s 70 in 2016, and was 18 more than her closest rival, Texas Lutheran All-America outfielder Kelly Jurden (55), this season.
Meanwhile, fellow graduate student and batterymate Hull collected her fourth-straight All-America honor and third season-ending national award in five historic campaigns. She won back-to-back Schutt Sports/NFCA National Player of the Year honors in 2017 and 2018, before the award was split into separate player and pitcher awards in 2019, and was also the Schutt Sports/NFCA Division III National Freshman of the Year honoree in 2017.
For the year, Hull went 23-3 with a 1.31 earned-run average, 1.07 WHIP, six shutouts, three saves, and exactly 200 strikeouts over 154.2 innings. She tied fellow All-American Cami Henry of DePauw for most wins this season, and ranked seventh nationally in strikeouts.
The Chesterfield, Va., native became the all-time Division III wins leader earlier this season and finished her career with 132 victories in the circle. Hull is also the all-time games leader (170) among Division III pitchers, and ranks fourth in career strikeouts (1,353). Her 40 wins in the Marlins’ 2018 national-title season are the best by any pitcher in the division in NCAA history.
The award, voted on by the NFCA Division III All-America Committee, was established in 2016 as a Player of the Year honor, and expanded to separate Player and Pitcher of the Year awards in 2019. To be eligible, student-athletes must be nominated by their member head coach.
Past winners of the award are Texas-Tyler’s Kelsey Batten in 2016, Hull in 2017 and 2018, and Illinois Wesleyan’s Ally Wiegand (pitcher) and Lynchburg’s Mackenzie Chitwood in 2019. No awards were presented in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
